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MAN,  THE  MICROCOSM, 


BY 


ABRAHAM  COLES,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 


WITH  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  AUTHOR  AND  FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF 

"AMBROSE  PARE,"  "  EDWARD  JENNER,"  "ANDREAS  VESALIUS," 

"WILLIAM  HARVEY,"  "PROF.  TULP  AND  HIS  PUPILS" 

BY  REMBRANDT,  THE  "APOLLO  BELVEDERE,"  THE 

"  VENUS  DE  MEDICI,"  "  THEODOR  BILLROTH 

AND  HIS  CLINICAL  ASSISTANTS,"  ETC. 

EDITED  BY  HIS  SON 

JONATHAN  ACKERMAN  COLES,  A.M.,  M.D. 


FIFTH  (PHYSICIAN'S)  EDITION. 


NEW  YORK: 

D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 
1892 


COPYRIGHT,  1892,  BY 
JONATHAN  ACKERMAN  COLES. 


NEWARK,   N.   J. 
ADVERTISER  PRINTING  HOUSE, 

1892 


CONTENTS. 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS,         -  Page  vii 

PREFACE,   -  -        Page  i 

CENTENNIAL  ADDRESS,  Page  5 

THE  MICROCOSM,       -  -      Pages  13-79 

ANALYSIS, -        Page  15 

GEOLOGIC  PROPHECY  OF  MAN'S  COMING,  -  -  Page  17 
SCRIPTURAL  ANTICIPATION  OF  THE  DOCTRINE,  Page  18 
GENERAL  VIEW — MAN  SUPREME,  -  Page  20 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE, Page  21 

INFIDEL  SCIENCE, Page  22 

COMMON  SENSE,    -------    Page  23 

INVOCATION,      -------        Page  24 

FLESH  GARMENT — SKIN,  ITS  MORAL  CHARACTER,  Page  24 

PATHOGNOMY, -     Page  25 

INTERIOR  VIEW — SKIN  DISSECTED,  -  -  Page  27 
BLENDING  OF  CONTRARIES — STRUCTURAL  DETAILS,  Page  28 
VOLUNTARY  MUSCLES — THEIR  OFFICE  AND  WORK,  Page  30 
MUSCULAR  DYNAMICS — DIRECTING  POWER 

WHERE? Page  32 

CRANIUM — SOUL'S  FIRMAMENT — BRAIN,  -  -  Page  34 
MIND'S  ORGAN — CITY  OF  THE  DEAD,  -  -  Page  35 
THE  EYE,  AND  ITS  CORRELATIVE,  -  Page  41 


iv  CONTENTS. 

LIGHT  HAS  NO   MANIFESTING  POWER  WITHOUT 

THE  EYE, Page  41 

LIGHT  LOST  IN  THE    EYE    REAPPEARS   IN    THE 

CONSCIOUSNESS,     ------  Page  43 

TEARS — SLEEP,    ITS    RESUSCITATING    POWER — 

ORGANIC  LIFE,  ------  Page  44 

SPIRITUAL  ANALOGIES,         --»..-  Page  47 
CONGENITAL  BLINDNESS — AWARDS.  OF  THE  LAST 

DAY, Page  48 

ASYLUMS  FOR  THE  BLIND,  -  Page  49 
ASYLUMS  FOR  THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB,  -  -  Page  50 
HEARING— POWER  OF  SOUND — Music  OF  NATURE,  Page  51 
Music  OF  ART— INSTRUMENTAL  AND  VOCAL,  -  Page  52 
VOICE — AIR  OF  EXPIRATION,  ITS  TRANSMUTA- 
TIONS,    Page  53 

SPEECH,  ACCOUNTABLE  SELF-RECORDING — MATH- 
EMATICAL PROBLEM, Page  55 

ITS  SOCIAL  USES — THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH,  Page  56 
ARTICULATION— NOSE— MOUTH— SMELL— TASTE,  Page  57 
SMELL — ODORS,    THEIR   SUBTLETY  AND   IMPON- 
DERABILITY,   -  Page  58 

BREATH  OF  LIFE,  NATURAL  AND  SPIRITUAL,  Page  59 

THEOPNEUSTY, Page  59 

TASTE  —  ELIMINATION    AND    WASTE  —  NOTHING 

LOST, Page  60 

HUMAN  WANT  AND  DIVINE  SUPPLY,       -       -  Page  62 


CONTENTS.  V 

LORD'S  PRAYER — HODIERNAL  BREAD — HYGIENIC 

WISDOM, Page  64 

INGESTION — DIGESTION — ASSIMILATION,          -  Page  65 
H  EART— CIRCULATION— NUTRITION— BLOOD  EX- 
HILARATIONS,           Page  67 

HEART — SEAT   OF   THE   AFFECTIONS — VISCERAL 

MODIFICATIONS, Page  69 

WOMAN— SEX — UNITY  IN  DIFFERENCE,      -        -  Page  70 

LOVE  OF  THE  SEXES — ENDS  ANSWERED,         -  Page  71 

TRUE  LOVE — SPURIOUS  LOVE,     -  Page  73 
CHARITY — PHYSICIAN — OPIFERQUE    PER    ORBEM 

DICOR, Page  75 

NOSOLOGY  —  AUSCULTATION    OF     HEART     AND 

LUNGS, Page  76 

PHYSICIAN'S    CHARACTER    AND    AIMS — SCIENCE 

PROGRESSIVE, Page  77 

SPIRITUAL  MALADIES — CHRIST  THE  GREAT  PHY- 
SICIAN,  -  ...  Page  78 

DEATH— IMMORTALITY, Page  79 

WORKS  OF  ABRAHAM  COLES,  Page  81 

CRITICS  AND  CRITICISMS,  -       Page  87 

Richard  Grant  White;  Rev.  Samuel  Irenseus  Prime,  D.  D.;  Wm. 
Cullen  Bryant;  James  Russell  Lowell;  "Christian  Quarterly  Re- 
view;" "The  Boston  Transcript;"  Lady  Jane  Franklin;  William 
C.  Prime;  Rev.  Philip  Schaff,  D.  D.;  "The  Republican,"  Spring- 
field; George  Ripley,  the  New  York  "Tribune;"  Rev.  James 
McCosh,  D.  D.;  Hon.  Richard  Stockton  Field;  Newark  "Adver- 
tiser;" Edmund  C.  Stedman;  Rev.  Robert  Turnbull,  D.  D.;  John 


vi  CONTENTS. 

G.  Whittier;  Rev.  S.  I.  Prime,  D.  D.;  George  Ripley,  New  York 
"Tribune;"  Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.  D. 

Gov.  Daniel  Haines;  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.  D. ;  Rev. 
Charles  Hodge,  D.  D. ;  Hon.  Frederick  Theodore  Frelinghuysen; 
Prof.  Robert  Lowell,  D.  D.;  Prof.  Stephen  Alexander;  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes;  William  Cullen  Bryant;  Chancellor  Henry  Wood- 
hull  Green;  Charles  H.  Spurgeon. 

Hon.  William  Earl  Dodge;  Thomas  Gordon  Hake,  M.  D.;  New 
York  "Observer;"  the  New  York  "Times;"  "The  Critic;"  John 
Y.  Foster;  Hon.  Justin  McCarthy;  the  "Examiner  and  Chronicle;" 
Hon.  Horace  N.  Congar;  Rev.  William  Hague,  D.  D.;  Newark 
"Advertiser;"  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman;  Rev.  A.  S.  Patton, 
D.  D.;  Hon.  Joseph  P.  Bradley;  John  G.  Whittier. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  John  Bright,  M.  P.;  Rev.  H.  G.  Weston,  D.  D.; 
Rev.  Horatius  Bonar,  D.  D.;  Rev,  Alexander  McLaren,  D.  D.; 
Adele  M.  Fielde;  Elizabeth  C.  Kinney;  "The  Book  Buyer," 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons;  Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D.;  the  New 
York  "Tribune;"  Rev.  Frederic  W.  Farrar,  D.  D.,  F.  R.  S. ;  Rev. 
A.  H.  Tuttle,  D.  D.;  Rev.  Charles  S.  Robinson,  D.  D.;  Hon. 
George  Hay  Stuart;  Rev.  D.  R.  Frazer,  D.  D.;  Charles  M.  Davis; 
Rev.  A.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D.;  S.  W.  Kershaw,  F.  S.  A.;  J.  K.  Hoyt; 
Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  Lewis  R.  Dunn,  D.  D.; 
Rev.  Asahel  C.  Kendrick,  D.  D. ;  George  MacDonald;  Rev.  Philip 
Schaff,  D.  D.;  the  "  New  York  Tribune;"  the  "Newark  Daily 
Advertiser  ;"  the  Rev.  Robert  S.  Mac  Arthur,  D.  D.;  the  Rev.  Ed- 
ward Judson,  D.D.;  Bishop  John  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D.;  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D.,  LL.D.;  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  Williams, 
D.D.,  LL.D. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

STEEL   ENGRAVING   OF  DR.  ABRAHAM  COLES, 

by  Alexander  Hay  Ritchie,     -  Frontispiece 

THE  APOLLO  BELVEDERE.     Artotype  copy  of  the  origi- 
nal. OpP-  page  20. 

This  celebrated  marble  statue  was  found  in  the  Fifteenth  Century, 
at  Antium  (Capo  d'  Anzo),  Italy,  the  birthplace  of  the  emperor 
Nero,  who  is  believed  to  have  brought  it  to  Antium  from  the 
Sacred  Shrine  at  Delphi.  Delphi,  situated  on  the  southern  side 
of  Mount  Parnassus,  was,  to  a  certain  extent,  protected  by  the 
sanctity  of  its  oracle  and  the  presence  of  its  god.  According  to 
Herodotus,  the  vast  riches  accumulated  in  the  temple  at  Delphi 
(City  of  the  Sun)  led  Xerxes,  after  having  forced  the  pass  of  Ther- 
mopylae, to  attempt  its  capture.  The  effort,  however,  is  said  to  have 
failed,  by  reason  of  the  intervention  of  Apollo.  The  sculptor  of 
this  wonderful  statue  is  unknown.  It  was  placed  through  Michael 
Angelo  in  the  Belvedere  of  the  Vatican.  It  was  taken  by  the  French 
to  Paris  in  1797,  but  was  restored  to  Rome  in  1815. 

ANDREAS  VESALIUS,  Opp.  page  24 

He  was  born  in  Brussels  in  1514;  began  his  studies  in  Louvain 
and  prosecuted  them  in  Italy.  He  made  himself  master  of  Hebrew, 
Greek  and  Arabic  at  the  age  of  twenty.  When  only  twenty-eight 
years  old,  he  published  his  great  work  on  Anatomy,  De  Corporis 
Humani  Fabrica.  Senac  calls  it  the  discovery  of  a  new  world;  and 
Haller  speaks  of  it  as  "an  immortal  work  by  which  all  that  had  been 
written  before  was  almost  superseded."  In  it  he  exposed  the 
errors  of  the  Galenian  school,  and  broke  the  spell  which  for  so  many 
ages  had  held  the  medical  world  in  thraldom.  The  work  met  with 


viii  LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

the  fiercest  opposition,  but  the  author's  reputation  steadily  increased. 
In  1544  he  was  made  chief  physician  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V,  and 
afterwards  to  Philip  II.  In  1563  or  1564  he  suddenly  left  Madrid  to 
make  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  for  reasons  not  certainly  known. 
The  common  story  is  that  while  he  was  examining  the  body  of  a 
Spanish  nobleman  who  had  died  under  his  charge,  as  he  laid  open 
the  chest,  the  bystanders  imagined  they  saw  a  tremulous  motion  of 
the  heart,  whereupon  he  was  denounced  to  the  Inquisition  as  guilty 
of  murder  and  impiety.  Where  superiority  of  knowledge  was 
esteemed  a  crime,  however  innocent,  he  was  sure  to  be  condemned, 
but  through  the  influence  of  Philip,  his  punishment  was  commuted 
to  a  pilgrimage.  On  his  voyage  back  to  accept  the  Paduan  profes- 
sorship of  Anatomy,  tendered  him  by  the  Venetian  senate,  he  was 
wrecked  on  the  Island  of  Zante,  where,  it  is  said,  he  died  of  starva- 
tion, October  15,  1564. 

The  original  painting  is  the  work  of  the  French  artist,  F.  Ham- 
man.  Its  design,  as  we  construe  it,  is  to  illustrate  the  pious  spirit 
in  which  the  great  anatomist  was  accustomed  to  begin  his  investiga- 
tions. With  eyes  turned  reverently  upward  to  a  crucifix  on  the 
wall,  he  prefaces  the  work  of  dissection  with  devout  prayer  to  the 
Divine  Redeemer,  the  Incarnate  Word,  Maker  of  all  things,  Lord 
of  life,  Lord  also  of  the  Sciences,  and  '  'that  True  Light  which  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world."  This  view  of  the  design  of 
the  picture  makes  its  accommodation  to  the  purposes  of  the  entire 
poem  obvious  and  easy.  Possibly,  by  a  stretch. of  courtesy,  the 
invocation  found  on  the  twenty-fourth  page  may  be  allowed  to 
stand  for  the  prayer  supposed  to  be  offered. 

"  Dear  God!  this  body,  which,  with  wondrous  art,"  &c.— P.  24. 

REMBRANDT'S  "  LESSON   IN   ANATOMY."     Prof.  Tulp  and 
his  Pupils.     All  Portraits.     1632.      -     Opp.  page  31. 

The  original  of  this  picture  is  found  at  the  Hague.  It  formerly 
stood  in  the  Anatomy  School  of  Amsterdam,  but  was  purchased  by 
the  King  of  Holland  for  32,000  guilders  (^"2,700).  It  is  described  as 
a  "most  wonderful  painting  and  one  of  the  artist's  finest  works." 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  remarks:  "To  avoid  making  it  an  object  dis- 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  ix 

agreeable  to  look  at,  the  figure  is  but  just  cut  at  the  wrist;  showing 
\hz.  flexor  muscles  of  the  fingers.  There  are  seven  other  portraits, 
colored  like  nature  itself,  fresh  and  highly  finished;  one  of  the 
figures  behind  has  a  paper  in  his  hand  on  which  are  written  the 
names  of  the  rest,  with  Rembrandt's  own,  and  the  date  1632.  The 
dead  body  is  perfectly  well  drawn  (a  little  foreshortened)  and  seems 
to  have  been  just  washed.  Nothing  can  be  more  truly  the  color  of 
dead  flesh.  The  legs  and  feet,  which  are  nearest  the  eye,  are  in 
shadow;  the  principal  light  which  is  on  the  body  is  by  that  means 
preserved  of  a  compact  form." 

"  The  subject  MUSCLES,  girded  to  fulfill 
The  lightning  mandates  of  the  sovereign  will, — 
Th'  abounding  means  of  motion,  wherein  lurk 
Man's  infinite  capacity  for  work." 

HARVEY  DEMONSTRATING  TO  CHARLES  I  HIS  THEORY  OF 
THE  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD,     -      Opp.  page  67. 

William  Harvey  was  born  in  Folkstone,  England,  April  i,  1578; 
died  in  London,  June  6,  1657.  In  1628,  he  published  his  great  dis- 
covery, made,  it  is  said,  but  not  matured,  nine  years  before,  in  a 
work  entitled  Exercitatio  Anatomica  de  Motu  Cordis  et  Sanguinis  in 
Animalibus,  and  dedicated  it  to  Charles  I.  He  lived  to  be  considered 
as  the  first  anatomist  and  physician  of  his  time,  and  to  see  his  dis- 
covery universally  acknowledged. 

The  original  of   the  above  picture  is  by    an   English  painter 
(Robert  Hannah). 

"  Make  room,  my  HEART,  that  pour'st  thyself  abroad, 
Deep,  central,  awful  mystery  of  God! 

***** 
Where  Auricle  and  Ventricle  with  power 
Repeat  their  grasp  five  thousand  times  an  hour." 

THE  VENUS  DE  MEDICI.      By  Cleomenes,  the  Athenian. 
B.  C.  200.  Opp.  page  70. 

This  famous  antique  marble  statue  was  exhumed  in  the  villa  of 
Hadrian,  near  Tivoli,  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  in  eleven  pieces. 
After  remaining  for  some  time  in  the  Medici  palace  at  Rome,  it  was 


X  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

taken  to  Florence  and  is  now  in  the  "  Tribune."  It  was  in  the 
Louvre  at  Paris  from  1796  to  1815.  "  From  its  exquisite  proportions 
and  perfection  of  contour,  the  Venus  de  Medici  has  become  the 
most  celebrated  standard  of  female  form  extant." 

The  following  rules  obtained  by  measurements  of  Greek  statues 
are  adopted  by  sculptors: 

"FIRST — As  to  height,  tastes  differ,  but  the  Venus  de  Medici  is 
about  five  feet  five  inches  in  height.  This  is  held  by  many  sculptors 
and  artists  to  be  the  most  admirable  stature  for  a  woman.  For  a 
woman  of  this  height,  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  pounds  is  the 
proper  weight,  and  if  she  be  well  formed  she  can  stand  another  ten 
pounds  without  greatly  showing  it.  When  her  arms  are  extended 
she  should  measure  from  tip  of  middle  finger  to  tip  of  middle  finger 
just  five  feet  five  inches,  exactly  her  own  height.  The  length  of 
her  hand  should  be  just  a  tenth  of  that,  and  her  foot  just  a  seventh, 
and  the  diameter  of  her  chest  a  fifth.  From  her  thighs  to  the  ground 
she  should  measure  just  what  she  measures  from  the  thighs  to  the 
top  of  the  head.  The  knee  should  come  exactly  midway  between 
the  thigh  and  the  heel.  The  distance  from  the  elbow  to  the  middle 
finger  should  be  the  same  as  the  distance  from  the  elbow  to  the 
middle  of  the  chest.  From  the  top  of  the  head  to  the  chin  should 
be  just  the  length  of  the  foot,  and  there  should  be  the  same  dis- 
tance between  the  chin  and  the  armpits.  The  waist  measure  twenty- 
four  inches,  and  the  bust  thirty -four  inches,  if  measured  from  under 
the  arms,  and  forty-three  if  over  them.  The  upper  arm  should 
measure  thirteen  inches  and  the  wrist  six.  The  calf  of  the  leg 
should  measure  fourteen  and  one-half  inches;  the  thigh,  twenty- 
five,  and  the  ankle,  eight.  There  is  another  system  of  measure- 
ments which  says  that  the  distance  twice  around  the  thumb  should 
go  once  around  the  wrist;  twice  around  the  wrist,  once  around  the 
throat;  twice  around  the  throat,  once  around  the  waist,  and  so  on. 

As  for  coloring  and  shape,  here  is  the  code  laid  down  by  the 
Arabs,  who  say  that  a  woman  should  have  these  things:  BLACK — 
Hair,  eyebrows,  lashes  and  pupils.  WHITE — Skin,  teeth  and  globe 
of  the  eye.  RED — Tongue,  lips  and  cheeks.  ROUND — Head,  neck, 
arms,  ankles  and  waist.  LONG — Back,  fingers,  arms  and  limbs. 
LARGE — Forehead,  eyes  and  lips.  NARROW — Eyebrows,  nose  and 
feet.  SMALL— Ears,  bust  and  hands." 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xi 

AMBROSE   PARE    (1509-1590).      "The  Father  of   French 
Surgery,"  Opp.  page  75. 

Brantoine  relates  that  Henry  III  took  good  care  to  shield  his 
surgeon  (Pare),  who  was  suspected  of  being  a  Huguenot,  from  the 
dangers  of  St.  Bartholomew's  night,  keeping  him  in  his  own  room 
and  motioning  him  not  to  move  therefrom.  Theodor  Billroth  says 
Fare's  treatises  on  the  treatment  of  gun-shot  wounds  are  classical, 
and  he  has  rendered  himself  immortal  by  the  introduction  of  the 
ligature  for  bleeding  vessels  after  amputation. 

EDWARD  JENNER  (1749-1823),      -        -      Opp.  page  77. 

Edward  Jenner  had  his  attention  directed  to  the  discovery  of 
vaccination  as  a  preventive  of  smallpox  by  hearing  a  young  milk- 
maid say  she  could  not  take  the  disease  because  she  had  already 
had  the  cowpox.  Upon  investigation,  he  "satisfied  himself  of  the 
efficacy  of  inoculation  with  the  virus  of  the  cowpox  to  prevent 
smallpox,  and  next  ascertained,  with  equal  certainty,  that  the 
former  disease  could  be  communicated  from  one  human  being  to 
another,  without  having  recourse  to  the  original  vaccine  matter." 
In  1858  a  statue  of  Jenner  was  placed  in  Trafalgar  Square,  London. 

PROF.  THEODOR  BILLROTH,   M.    D.,  AND    HIS    CLINICAL 
ASSISTANTS,  Vienna.  Opp.  page  78. 

"Each  year  adds  something — many  things  ye  know 
Your  sires  knew  not  a  hundred  years  age." — Page  78. 


PREFACE. 

following  Address  and  Poem  were  delivered 
before  the  Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey  at  its 
Centennial  Meeting,  held  in  Rutgers  College,  New 
Brunswick,  N.  J.,  January  24,  1866,  and  published  with 
its  Transactions.  Prepared  amid  the  hurry  and  distrac- 
tions of  other  duties,  and  with  special  reference  to  the 
demands  and  limitations  of  the  occasion,  the  Poem,  as 
originally  delivered,  fell  short  of  the  author's  design, 
which  was  to  produce,  if  possible,  a  tolerably  complete 
compendium  of  that  noblest,  most  necessary,  and  yet, 
strange  to  say,  that  most  neglected  of  all  the  sciences — 
Anthropology — relieved  of  some  of  the  dryness  belong- 
ing to  the  ordinary  modes  of  presentation. 

The  hope  of  supplying  in  some  measure  existing 
deficiencies,  led  the  author,  after  the  manuscript  had 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  printer,  to  avail  himself  of 
the  short  intervals  which  transpired  between  the  receiv- 
ing and  returning  of  the  proofs,  to  castigate  some  parts 


ii  PREFACE. 

and  expand  others  not  sufficiently  developed,  so  that 
besides  alterations  there  have  been  additions  to  the 
amount  of  two  hundred  lines  and  more  since  that  first 
reading.  He  regrets  that  the  hurry  of  the  press  joined 
to  the  hurry  arising  from  other  causes,  afforded  so  little 
opportunity  for  putting  in  practice  the  sound  inculca- 
tion of  Horace,  concerning  the  duty  of  delay  and  care- 
ful finish:  limce.  labor  et  mora.  With  more  time  at  his 
disposal,  he  thinks  he  could  have  done  better  justice  to 
the  fine  capabilities  of  a  subject,  which  the  writers  of 
verse,  ransacking  heaven  and  earth  for  a  theme,  have 
hitherto  for  the  most  part  strangely  overlooked.  This 
remarkable  omission  is  the  more  to  be  wondered  at, 
because  many  of  our  best  poets  have  been  physicians; 
and  for  some  reason  or  other 

"  the  wise  of  ancient  days  adored 
One  power  of  Physic,  Melody  and  Song." 

Dr.  Armstrong's  well-known  Poem  in  four  books, 
written  in  blank  verse,  and  first  published  in  1744, 
entitled,  "  The  Art  of  Preserving  Health,"  does,  indeed, 
treat  partially  and  incidentally  of  physiological 


PREFACE.  iii 

matters,  and  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  forming 
in  some  sort  an  exception  to  the  general  rule  of 
neglect  affirmed  above.  It  has  for  its  topics — Air, 
Diet,  Exercise  and  the  Passions — discussed  of  course, 
in  conformity  with  the  design  of  the  Poem,  according 
to  their  sanitary  bearings,  each  forming  the  subject 
of  a  separate  book.  The  work  was  everywhere  read 
and  admired;  and  remains  to  this  day,  according  to 
the  poet  Campbell,  "  the  most  successful  attempt  in  our 
language  to  incorporate  material  science  with  poetry." 
While  the  critic  admits  that  "the  practical  maxims  of 
science,  which  the  Muse  has  stamped  with  imagery  and 
attuned  to  harmony,  have  so  far  an  advantage  over 
those  delivered  in  prose,  that  they  become  more  agree- 
able and  permanent  acquisitions  of  the  memory,"  he,  in 
common  with  others,  seems  to  think,  that  there  inhere 
in  such  subjects,  nevertheless,  difficulties  of  a  most 
formidable  kind,  a  perversity  and  stubbornness  of 
nature,  which  are  never  overcome  except  by  some  rare 
felicity  of  fortune  or  surprising  exertion  of  genius. 
Hence  he  says:  "the  author's  Muse  might  be  said  to 
show  a  professional  intrepidity  in  choosing  her  subject; 


iv  PREFACE. 

and,  like'  the  physician,  to  prolong  the  simile,  she 
escaped  on  the  whole  with  little  injury.  *  *  *  What 
is  explained  of  the  animal  economy  is  obscured  by  no 
pedantic  jargon,  but  made  distinct  and  to  a  certain 
degree  picturesque  to  the  conception."  So  too  in  his 
final  summing  up  of  the  merits  of  the  Poet,  he  does  not 
fail  to  emphasize  that  special  one,  due  "  to  the  hand 
which  has  reared  poetical  flowers  on  the  dry  and  dif- 
ficult ground  of  philosophy." 

But  there  is  another  and  much  older  example  of  this 
morganatic  marriage,  as  some  might  call  it,  between 
poetry  and  natural  science — one  antedating  the  Chris- 
tian era  and  the  time  of  Virgil.  Lucretius,  born  in  the 
year  before  Christ  95,  composed  a  Latin  poem  in  heroic 
hexameters,  entitled  De  Rerum  Natura.  It  is  divided 
into  six  books;  and  is  based  on  the  doctrines  of  Epi- 
curus, who  taught  that  the  world  was  formed  from  a 
fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms. 

The  first  two  books  expound  the  nature  and  proper- 
ties of  these  ultimate  atoms  or  seeds  of  things,  varying 
in  shape  and  infinite  in  number,  moving  in  void  space 
infinite  in  extent,  with  great  swiftness,  some  in  right 


PREFACE.  V 

lines,  others  declining  therefrom,  until  united  to  each 
other  after  innumerable  tentative  contacts,  all  the  ob- 
jects in  the  universe  are  generated — which  objects  form 
the  subject  matter  of  the  remaining  four  books. 

The  third  book  is  taken  up  with  a  description  of  the 
mind  (animus)  and  soul  (anima)  maintaining  that  both 
are  corporeal,  acting  on  the  body  by  material  impact  ; 
that  the  substance  of  the  mind  and  soul  is  not  simple, 
but  composed  of  four  subtle  elements — heat,  vapor,  air, 
and  a  nameless  fourth  substance  on  which  sensibility 
depends,  and  is,  so  to  speak,  the  soul  of  the  soul;  that 
the  soul  cannot  be  separated  from  the  body  without 
destruction  to  both,  and  that  death  is  the  end  of  man. 

The  fourth  book  treats  of  the  senses,  averring  that 
images*  of  exquisite  subtlety  are  constantly  emitted 
(shed,  peeled  off  as  it  were)  from  the  surface  of  objects, 

*  Democritus  first,  Epicurus  afterwards  called  these  eidula  ical 
rvTTovf,  i.  e.  eidola  and  types;  Cicero,  images;  Quintilian,  figures; 
Catius,  spectres;  Lucretius,  'effigies,  images,  simulacra,  species, 
figures,  exuviae,  spoils,  quasi  membranes,  cortices,  etc.  Epicurus 
and  Lucretius  supposed  spectres  of  the  dead  to  be  pellicles  thrown 
off  from  corpses  which  were  so  thin  as  to  pass  through  coffins  and 
all  other  obstructions. 


vi  PREFACE. 

which  flying  everywhere  and  impinging  on  the  organs 
of  sight  produce  vision;  that  voice  and  sound  are  cor- 
poreal images,  (as  proved  by  their  abrading  the  throat 
after  long  or  loud  speaking,)  which  strike  the  ear  and 
produce  hearing.  Taste  and  odors  are  accounted  for; 
and  imagination  and  thought  traced  to  images  which 
penetrate  the  body  through  the  senses.  Sleep  is  next 
spoken  of,  and  the  various  causes  of  dreams — the  book 
closing  with  a  discourse  on  love  and  matters  pertaining 
thereto. 

The  fifth  book  treats  of  the  origin  of  the  world — 
land,  sea,  sky,  sun,  stars,  the  movements  of  the  heavens, 
the  changes  of  the  seasons  and  the  progress  of  man, 
society,  institutions  and  sciences — while  the  sixth 
book,  being  the  last,  attempts  an  explanation  of  the 
most  striking  natural  appearances,  such  as  lightning, 
thunder,  clouds,  rainbow,  snow,  wind,  hail,  earthquakes 
and  volcanoes,  concluding  with  a  discourse  on  diseases, 
and  a  learned  and  elegant  description  of  a  pest  which 
in  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war  desolated  Athens. 

The  philosophy  of  this  celebrated  Poem  is  of  course 
false  and  absurd,  but  in  regard  to  its  poetical  merit 


PREFACE.  vii 

there  can  be  but  one  opinion.  The  poet's  mastery  over 
his  materials  is  complete.  Under  his  magic  touch, 
speculations  the  most  abstruse  and  technicalities  the 
most  refractory,  lose  their  intractableness,  and  are  con- 
verted into  forms  of  exquisite  beauty  and  grace.  Great, 
undoubtedly,  are  the  attractions  of  a  virgin  theme.  It 
added  to  the  rapture  of  Milton,  "  soaring  in  the  high 
reason  of  his  fancy  with  his  garland  and  singing  robes 
about  him,"  the  knowledge  that  he  pursued 

"Things  unattempted  yet  in  prose  or  rhyme." 

So  Lucretius,  in  the  opening  lines  of  the  fourth  book, 
does  not  conceal  his  satisfaction  that  he  is  first  in  the 
field: 

"Avia  Pieridum  peragro  loca,  nullius  ante 
Trita  solo:  juvat  integros  adcedere  funteis 
Atque  haurire;  juvatque  novos  decerpere  flores, 
Insignemque  meo  capiti  petere  inde  coronam, 
Unde  prius  nulli  velarint  tempora  Musae."* 

*  The  Muses'  pathless  places  I  explore, 
Worn  by  the  sole  of  no  one's  foot  before  : 
'Tis  sweet  to  untouched  fountains  to  repair 
And  drink;  'tis  sweet  to  pluck  new  flowers;  and  there 
To  seek  a  famous  chaplet  for  my  brow 
Whence  have  the  Muses  veiled  no  head  till  now. 

The  literalness  of  this  translation  must  atone  for  its  lack  of  elegance. 


Viii  PREFACE. 

The  author  of  the  Microcosm,  enjoying,  in  common 
with  these  great  masters  of  song,  the  felicity  of  a  sub- 
ject unprofaned  by  previous  handling,  regrets  that  he 
does  not  possess  their  power  to  do  it  justice.  He  thinks 
it  strange — -that  while  amid  the  ignorances  and  the  vani- 
ties of  a  false  philosophy  two  thousand  years  ago,  the 
poet's  heart,  instinctively  discerning  the  excellent 
beauty  there  is  in  God's  works,  veras pulchritudines  rerum; 
Was  stirred  to  sing,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  charm 
the  ear  of  the  world 

"  Principio  coelum  ac  terras,  camposque  liquentes, 
Lucentemque  globum  lunae,  titaniaque  astra 
Spiritus  intus  alit;  totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  molem  et  magno  se  corpore  miscet  "- 

no  one  has  been  found  in  these  last  days,  after  so  long 
Waiting,  sufficiently  kindled  and  inspired  by  the  excit- 
ing discoveries  and  revelations  of  modern  science,  to 
undertake  the  task  of  lifting  them  into  the  sphere  of 
poetry,  and  glorifying  them  with  its  light.  If  there  is 
nothing  so  mean  but  it  has  a  divine  side — if  materials 
for  poetry  be  not  wanting  in  the  most  common  things, 
a  floating  cloud,  a  spear  of  grass,  or  a  handful  of  dust 


PREFA  CE.  lx 

even — how  much  more  may  this  be  said  of  so  lofty  a 
subject  as  Man,  "  the  mirror  of  the  power  of  God  " 
reflecting  His  Maker's  image  in  every  part,  in  the 
minutest  blood-disk  and  elementary  cell,  no  less  than 
in  the  complex  whole  of  his  most  wonderful  organism! 
In  short,  if  it  be  the  proper  business  of  Poetry  to  deal 
with  subjects  of  human  interest,  what  can  be  more 
human  than  humanity  itself?  Or  if  its  high  aim  be  to 
discover  throughout  creation  the  dazzling  tokens  of  the 
Beautiful,  the  to  uot\ov  which  is  only  another  name  for 
the  Divine,  where  else  in  all  the  universe  do  the  shin- 
ing footprints  of  the  First  Good  and  the  First  Fair 
appear  so  radiant  or  so  recent  as  in  His  last  and  crown- 
ing work,  the  Human  Form  ?  The  failure  of  the 
present  attempt  to  show  it,  would  prove  nothing 
against  the  grand  poetic  possibilities  of  such  a  theme. 
Still  it  would  be  true 

"  How  charming  is  divine  philosophy? 
Not  harsh,  and  crabbed,  as  dull  fools  suppose, 
But  musical  as  is  Apollo's  lute, 
And  a  perpetual  feast  of  nectared  sweets 
Where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns." 


THE    MICROCOSM. 

"KNOW   THYSELF." 


"It  is  most  true  that  of  all  things  in  the  universe  man  is  the 
most  composite,  so  that  he  was  not  without  reason  called  by  the 
ancients  Microcosm,  or  the  little  world  (Mundus  Minor)" — BACON. 

"What  a  piece  of  work  is  Man!  How  noble  in  reason!  how 
infinite  in  faculties  !  in  form  and  moving,  how  express  and  admir- 
able !  in  action,  how  like  an  angel  !  in  apprehension,  how  like  a 
God  ! " — SHAKESPEARE. 

"I  esteem  myself  as  composing  a  solemn  hymn  to  the  Author 
of  our  bodily  frame,  and  in  this  I  think  there  is  more  true  piety 
than  in  sacrificing  to  Him  hecatombs  of  oxen,  or  burnt  offerings  of 
the  most  costly  perfumes,  for  I  first  endeavor  to  know  Him  myself, 
and  afterwards  to  show  Him  to  others,  to  inform  them  how  great  is 
His  wisdom,  His  virtue,  His  goodness." — GALEN. 

"I  will  praise  Thee;  for  I  am  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made." 
— DAVID. 


ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    BEFOFE   THE 

Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey 

AT   ITS 

CENTENARY    ANNIVERSARY, 
JANUARY  24TH,  1866, 

BY 

ABRAHAM  COLES,  M.  D. 


ADDRESS. 

rT^HE  Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey,  hoary  with 
the  frosts  of  a  hundred  winters,  and  mindful  of 
its  just  honors  as  the  oldest  organization  of  the  kind 
on  the  Continent,  has  here  met,  in  a  place  not  far  from 
the  spot  where  it  was  first  cradled,  to  celebrate  by 
special  and  festal  observances,  this  its  first  Centenary 
Anniversary. 

It  certainly  affords  remarkable  proof  of  original 
vigor,  and  reflects  infinite  credit  upon  its  earlier  and 
later  membership,  that,  except  for  a  brief  space  during 
the  Revolutionary  War,  the  Society  has  never  failed  to 
hold  regular  meetings.  In  the  midst  of  a  thousand 
changes,  the  throes  of  revolution,  and  the  fall  of 
empires,  it  has  stood  unmoved.  Nations  have  been 
born  since  it  came  into  being.  It  is  older  than  the 
Republic.  At  the  time  of  its  formation,  its  founders 
were  living  under  British  rule,  not  dreaming  of  revolt. 


6  ADDRESS. 

If  they  shared  in  the  popular  ferment  caused  by  the 
passage  of  the  odious  Stamp  Act  by  Parliament  a  few 
months  before,  they  probably  had  no  expectation  of 
seeing  matters  pushed  to  the  point  of  open  rupture,, 
and  forcible  separation  from  the  mother  country. 

The  first  stone  of  the  Temple  erected  to  Freedom 
had  not  yet  been  laid.  The  Society  was  some  years  old 
when  the  first  blow  for  Independence  was  struck. 
Lexington  and  Concord, 

"  Where  once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world," 

were  insignificant  villages  unknown  to  fame.  The 
brain  that  conceived  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  probably  revolving  far  other  ideas.  On  the  dazzled 
mind  of  no  seer  or  statesman  had  dawned  the  unparal- 
leled splendors  of  the  Nation  that  was  to  be — the 
constellar  glories  of  that  Imperial  Commonwealth, 
composed  of  a  resplendent  Sisterhood  of  States,  mighty 
and  populous  and  ever  increasing,  joined  indissolubiy 
together  so  as  to  form  one  vital  organic  whole,  E pluri- 
bus  Unum,  such  as  is  witnessed  to-day. 


ADDRESS.  7 

Those  fourteen  physicians  and  surgeons,  (let  their 
names  be  always  mentioned  with  honor,)  who,  foremost 
in  an  enlightened  appreciation  of  the  advantages  accru- 
ing to  science  and  humanity  from  such  an  organization, 
on  the  23d  of  July,  A.  D.  1766,  laid  the  foundations  of 
this  Society — have  long  since  passed  away.  "After 
they  had  served  their  own  generation  by  the  will  of 
God  they  felt  on  sleep,  and  were  laid  unto  their  fathers." 
How  inspiring  the  vision,  could  they  have  been  per- 
mitted to  penetrate  the  future  and  foresee  all  that  has 
since  happened;  the  mighty  changes  which  have  taken 
place;  the  struggles  and  triumphs  by  means  of  which 
this  divinely  favored  and  foreordained  Nation  has  been 
gloriously  carried  forward  to  the  culminating  felicity 
of  the  present  time,  when  Peace  once  more  smiles 
through  all  the  land — a  glad  and  righteous  Peace — and 
Slavery,  its  deadliest  foe,  the  inextinguishable  cause  of 
strife  and  hatred,  ever  at  work  to  mar 

"The  unity  and  married  calm  of  States," 

has,  albeit  at  an  immense  cost  of  treasure  and  blood,  by 
a  perpetual  and   unalterable  constitutional   enactment, 


8  ADDRESS. 

been  banished  and  driven  out  of  every  part  of  the 
national  domain.  How  amazing  the  contrast  between 
ow  and  then!  Then  there  were  no  railroads,  no 
steamships,  no  telegraphs,  no  Hoe's  lightning  print- 
ing presses,  no  photography,  no  chloroform.  In  like 
manner  who  can  tell  what  new  and  startling  discoveries 
will  be  made  in  the  centuries  to  come.  Methinks 

"  It  were  a  pleasant  thing 

To  fall  asleep  with  all  one's  friends, 
To  pass  with  all  our  social  ties 

To  silence  from  the  paths  of  men, 
And  every  hundred  years  to  rise 

And  learn  the  world,  and  sleep  again, 
To  sleep  through  terms  of  mighty  wars, 

And  wake  on  science  grown  to  more, 
On  secrets  of  the  brain,  the  stars, 

As  wild  as  aught  of  fairy  lore, 
And  all  that  else  the  years  will  show, 

The  Poet-forms  of  stronger  hours, 
The  vast  Republics  that  may  grow, 

The  Federations  and  the  Powers. 
****** 

So  sleeping,  so  aroused  from  sleep, 

Through  sunny  decades  new  and  strange, 

Or  gay  quinquenniads,  would  we  reap 
The  flower  and  quintessence  of  change." 


ADDRESS.  g 

Members  of  the  Society!  called  to  address  you  in  the 
character  of  President  on  an  occasion  so  extraordinary, 
I  can  say  with  all  sincerity,  that  however  grateful  it  may 
be  to  my  feelings  to  be  the  recipient  of  so  distinguished 
an  honor,  the  gratification  is  largely  tempered  with  the 
fear  that  I  may  not  be  able  to  justify  the  partiality  of 
your  selection.  My  misgivings,  I  confess,  are  greater, 
because  of  my  having  ventured  upon  untrodden  paths, 
and  attempted  the  novelty  of  a  poetical  excursion  into 
the  arduous  fields  of  human  physiology,  where  few 
flowers  are  supposed  to  bloom.  The  poetical  form,  how- 
ever, may  fairly  claim  this  advantage  in  justification  of 
its  adoption,  that  it  allows  a  more  fervid  expression  of 
those  feelings  of  devout  awe  and  amazement  which  the 
study  of  the  wonders  of  the  human  economy  is  so  well 
fitted  to  excite. 

I  offer  no  apology  for  mixing  up  my  Religion  with 
my  Science  ;  and  make  no  concealment  of  the  fact,  but 
glory  in  avowing  it,  that  these  are  Christian,  both  one 
and  the  other.  Nor  do  I  regard  it  as  a  just  matter  of 
reproach  that  I  make  my  creed  so  dominant  and  posi- 
tive. Believing  firmly  that  the  Christ  that  redeemed 


10  ADDRESS. 

me  is  the  God  that  made  me;  not  knowing  nor  desiring" 
to  know  any  other  God  but  Him,  I  am  accustomed  to 
make  Him  an  essential  part  of  all  knowledge,  dis- 
cover Him  in  every  discovery  of  Science,  and  count  all 
truth  dead  until  He  vitalizes  it.  Any  Science  of  Life, 
which  is  not  based  on  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
"in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,"  I 
reckon  essentially  defective. 

A  Physiology  which  has  to  do  with  decomposing 
corpses,  rather  than  living  men  and  women;  that  puts 
these  into  retorts  and  distils  them;  or  peeps  and  peers 
at  the  minutest  shreds  and  specks  of  dead  tissue 
through  a  microscope,  and  determines  a  cell  to  be  the 
ultimate  fact  of  structure,  however  true,  has  no  right, 
I  conceive,  to  be  supercilious  towards  those,  who,  with- 
out rejecting  what  is  thus  discovered,  find  room  for 
other  things,  things  that  pertain  to  the  spiritual  side 
of  humanity,  the  indubitable  facts  of  consciousness,  a 
soul  that  soars  and  delights  in  freedom,  and  is  not  so 
in  love  with  smallness,  as  willingly  to  be  cooped  up 
forever  into  so  minute  and  microscopic  a  circle,  cor- 
responding to  a  cypher,  the  symbol  of  nothingness,  to 


ADDRESS.  I  r 

which  indeed  it  closely  approximates.  So  that  if  it 
comes  to  pishing  and  poohing,  others,  for  aught  we 
can  see,  have  as  good  a  right  to  pish  and  pooh  as  those 
who  arrogate  so  much;  the  Sadducees  of  science,  who 
believe  in  neither  angel  nor  spirit,  and  are  able  to  find 
nowhere  anything  worthy  of  worship;  in  this  respect, 
showing  themselves  to  be  more  heathenish  than  the 
heathen. 

The  great  Galen,  albeit  an  unbaptized  pagan,  who 
lived  and  wrote  in  the  second  century,  after  reviewing 
the  structure  of  the  hand  and  foot,  and  their  adapta- 
tion to  their  respective  functions,  treats  us  to  the  fol- 
lowing eloquent  outburst  of  pious  feeling,  breathing  a 
spirit  not  unworthy  of  Christianity  itself:  "  I  esteem 
myself  as  composing  a  solemn  hymn  to  the  Author  of 
our  bodily  frame,  and  in  this  I  think  there  is  more  true 
piety  than  in  sacrificing  to  Him  hecatombs  of  oxen,  or 
burnt  offerings  of  the  most  costly  perfumes,  for  I  first 
endeavor  to  know  Him  myself,  and  afterwards  to  show 
Him  toothers,  to  inform  them  how  great  is  His  wisdom, 
His  virtue,  His  goodness." 

This  noble  utterance,  so   honorable  to  the  head  and 


12  ADDRESS. 

heart  of  one,  who,  for  1400  years,  ruled  from  his  urn  in 
the  great  schools  of  medicine  throughout  the  civilized 
world  with  an  authority  so  absolute,  that  it  was 
reckoned  a  crime  to  question  it  in  the  smallest  par- 
ticular— sets  forth  so  truly  the  design  I  had  in  view  in 
the  following  Poem,  that  I  have  chosen  it  as  a  motto, 
in  connection  with  that  other  apothegm  of  Greek  wis- 
dom, "Know  Thyself."  I  style  my  Poem,  "THE  MICRO- 
COSM," and  in  order  that  I  may  be  more  easily  followed 
in  the  reading  of  it,  I  beg  to  premise  an  outline  of  its 
plan  in  the  following 

ANALYSIS. 

The  Poem  begins  with  speaking  of  Man  as  the  Arche- 
type or  ideal  exemplar  of  all  animals,  whose  coming 
was  foretold  in  a  long  series  of  Geologic  prophecies 
from  the  creation  of  the  paleozoic  fishes ;  and  then 
passes  to  notice  a  remarkable  anticipation  of  this 
accepted  doctrine  of  modern  science  in  the  i3pth  Psalm 
— Owen,  Agassiz  and  other  great  lights  of  Comparative 
and  Philosophical  Anatomy  agreeing  in  this — that 
while  man  was  the  last  made  he  was  the  first  planned 


ADDRESS.  13 

of  all  animals — it  being  easy  to  trace  even  in  the  fins  of 
the  fish,  a  marked  resemblance  in  structure  to  the  bones 
composing  the  human  arms  of  which  they  are  homo- 
logues — fins,  in  other  words,  being  imperfect  arms,  arms 
in  their  most  rudimentary  condition. 

In  speaking  of  the  supreme  dignity  of  the  human 
form,  viewed  as  a  whole,  and  of  man  existing  in  God  as 
well  as  of  God,  occasion  is  taken  to  animadvert  upon 
the  atheistic  tendency  of  certain  materialistic  teachings. 
After  which  the  component  parts  of  the  Human  Body 
are  taken  up  in  detail,  beginning  with — I.  the  SKIN,  as 
its  outermost  covering  and  face,  (expressing  the  pas- 
sions, &c.,)  composed  of  three  layers.  Below  the  Skin 
lie — II.  the  MUSCLES,  the  Organs  of  Motion,  directed  by 
the  Will,  acting  through  nervous  channels  of  communi- 
cation with — III.  the  BRAIN,  as  the  Common  Sensory, 
and  seat  of  this,  and  the  other  Faculties  of  the  Mind, 
such  as  the  Understanding,  the  Religious  Sense,  Mem- 
ory, Imagination  and  Conscience.  A  secretory  function 
is  attributed  to  the  great  Ganglions  of  the  Brain  (the 
Gray  Substance)  of  a  hypothetical  Nervous  Fluid 
which  fills  the  whole  body. 


I4  ADDRESS. 

The  Mind  being  dependent  for  its  perceiving  power 
on  the  Organs  of  the  Senses,  leads  to  a  consideration 
of — IV.  the  EYE  in  its  relation  to  Light,  also  to  Tears 
and  Sleep.  After  glancing  at  the  analagous  relations 
subsisting  between  the  Soul  and  Truth,  mention  is 
made  of  the  Founders  of  Asylums  for  the  Blind;  also 
of  Asylums  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb.  Next  comes — V. 
the  EAR  in  its  relation  to  Sound  and  Music;  and  then 
by  a  natural  transition — VI.  the  HUMAN  VOICE,  as  being 
the  most  perfect  of  musical  instruments.  The  Mouth 
and  Nose,  being  concerned  in  Articulation,  brings  up — 
VII.  TASTE,  and— VIII.  SMELL.  The  final  cause  of  Taste 
being  the  repair  of  the  Waste  the  body  is  constantly 
undergoing,  there  follows  a  description  of — IX.  INGES- 
TION,  DIGESTION  and  ASSIMILATION.  The  Chyle  received 
into  the  Blood  is  conveyed  to  the  right  side  of  the 
HEART,  which,  besides  being  the  grand  Organ  of — X. 
the  CIRCULATION  and  indirectly  of  NUTRITION,  is  the 
reputed  seat  of — XL  the  AFFECTIONS,  and  stands  in 
general  speech  as  a  synonym  of  LOVE  under  its  mani- 
fold manifestations. 

Having  noticed  the  coloring  or  modifying  power  of 


THE    MICROCOSM. 


Geologic  Prophecy  of  Man's  Coming. 

OWHAT  a  solemn  and  divine  delight 
To  pierce  the  darkness  of  primeval  night — 
Through  countless  generations  upward  climb 
To  the  first  epochs  of  beginning  time  ; 
Back,  through  the  solitude  of  ages  gone, 
To  the  dim  twilight  of  Creation's  dawn  ; 
To  the  dread  genesis  of  heaven  and  earth, 
When  pregnant  Deity  gave  Nature  birth  ; 
Borne  on  swift  pinions,  till  our  feet  we  place 
Upon  the  undermost  granitic  base 
Of  the  round  world  ;   and,  awe-struck,  standing  there, 
Where  all  is  lifeless,  desolate  and  bare, 

2 


1 8  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Behold  the  forming  of  earth's  upper  crust, 
Built  up  of  atoms  of  once  living  dust ; 
Layer  on  layer  rising,  rock  on  rock, 
Through  lapse  of  years  that  numeration  mock; 
Where  lie,  in  stony  sepulchres  forgot, 
Gigantic  organisms  that  now  are  not ; 
And  all  the  various  forms  of  life  prevail, 
From  low  to  high,  in  an  ascending  scale, — 
Mollusk  and  fish,  then  reptile,  and  then  bird, 
So  on  to  mammal,  each  o'er  each  interred — 
All  pointing  forward,  in  the  eternal  plan, 
To  the  ideal,  archetypal  MAN  ! 

Scriptural  Anticipation  of  the  Doctrine. 

How  oft,  what's  plain  and  patent  in  the  Word 
Is  by  slow  Science  painfully  inferred  ! 
The  truth  she  took  long  centuries  to  unfold, 
Had  she  but  known  it,  was  already  told. 
See,  with  what  ease  the  Psalmist  now  unlocks 
The  secret  of  the  paleozoic  rocks  ; 
Inspiring  insight  given  him,  to  see 
The  drift  and  meaning  of  the  mystery; 
His,  the  discoveries  of  modern  boast, 
By  revelation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ; 


THE    MICROCOSM.  19 

In  correspondence,  literally  exact 
With  geologic  inference  and  fact, 
O'erwhelmed  with  fear  and  wonder,  hear  him  speak  :* 

"O  Omnipresent  One  !  in  vain  I  seek 
To  bound  Thy  being,  get  beyond  Thee,  go 
Where  Thou,  the  Infinite,  art  not, —  Oh,  no  ! 
If  I  ascend  to  heaven,  I  find  Thee  ;  or  in  hell 
I  make  my  bed,  I  find  Thee  there  as  well ; 
There  is  no  hiding  place  from  Thee  ;  yea,  in  the  dark 
Thou  seest  me,  nor  need'st  the  sun — that  spark 
Which  the  insufferable  splendor  of  Thine  eye 
Did  kindle — to  reveal  me  or  descry  ; 
Thou  hast  possessed  my  reins  ;  didst  give  me  room, 
Growth  and  development  in  my  mother's  womb  ; 
My  substance  was  not  hid  from  Thee,  when  I 
Was  made  in  secret,  and  was  curiously 
In  the  earth's  lowest  parts  and  strata  wrought  ; 
My  perfect  whole,  was  present  to  Thy  thought 
While  yet  imperfect,  and,  in  Nature's  book 
My  members  were  prefigured  ;  each  thing  took 
My  embryonic  likeness  ;  fish's  fin, 
By  virtue  of  relationship  and  kin, 

*  Psalm  cxxxix. 


20  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Predicted  me  ;    ages  before  I  came, 

The  Ichthyosaurus  prophesied  the  same  ; 

Entrails  of  beast,  and  wing  of  bird,  supplied 

Aruspicy  and  augury,  nor  lied. 

Thy  works,  how  marvellous  !    Thy  hands  began, 

And  wrought  continually  to  make  me  man. 

In  all  the  grand  ascent  of  Nature's  stair, 

O  unforgetting  God  !    I've  been  Thy  care  : 

How  precious  are  Thy  thoughts  to  me — their  count 

Is  as  the  sand,  an  infinite  amount !" 

General   View — Man  Supreme. 

O  thou,  made  up  of  every  creature's  best, 
The  summing  up  and  monarch  of  the  rest  ! 
Thy  high-raised  cranium, — vaulted  to  contain 
The  big  and  billowy  and  powerful  brain, 
While  that  a  scanty  thimbleful,  no  more, 
Belongs  to  such  as  swim  or  creep  or  soar; 
Thy  form  columnar,  sky-ward  looking  face,* 
Majestic  mien,  intelligence  and  grace, 
Thy  foot's  firm  tread,  and  gesture  of  thy  hand 


'  "  Pronaque  cum  spectant  animalia  csetera  terrain, 
Os  homini  sublime  dedit :  ccelumque  videre 
Jussit,  et  erectos  ad  sidera  tollere  vultus." — Ovid. 


APOLLO     BELVEDERE. 
From    the    Original    Statue. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  21 

Proclaim  thee  ruler,  destined  to  command. 

A  little  lower  than  the  angels  made, 

Dominion,  glory,  worship  on  thee  laid, 

I  praise  not  thee,  but  honor  and  applaud 

The  handiwork  and  masterpiece  of  God. 

Fearful  and  wonderful,  and  all  divine, 

Where  two  worlds  mingle,  and  two  lives  combine — 

A  dual  body,  and  a  dual  soul, 

Touching  eternity  at  either  pole — 

The  tides  of  being,  circling  swift  or  slow, 

'Tween  mystic  banks  that  ever  overflow, 

Exist  not  severed  from  the  Fountain-head, 

But  whence  they  rise,  eternally  are  fed  : 

Our  springs  are  all  in  God;  from  Him  we  drink, 

Live,  move,  and  have  our  being,  feel  and  think. 

Christian  Science. 

I  value  Science — none  can  prize  it  more — 
It  gives  ten  thousand  motives  to  adore. 
Be  it  religious,  as  it  ought  to  be, 
The  heart  it  humbles,  and  it  bows  the  knee ; 
What  time  it  lays  the  breast  of  Nature  bare, 
Discerns  God's  fingers  working  everywhere  ; 
In  the  vast  sweep  of  all  embracing  laws, 


22  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Finds  Him  the  real  and  the  only  Cause  ; 
And,  in  the  light  of  clearest  evidence, 
Perceives  Him  acting  in  the  present  tense — 
Not  as  some  claim,  once  acting  but  now  not, 
The  glorious  product  of  His  hands  forgot, 
Having  wound  up  the  grand  automaton, 
Leaving  it,  henceforth,  to  itself  to  run. 

Infidel  Science. 

If  I  mistake  not,  'tis  in  this  consists 
The  common  folly  of  the  specialists. 
Bigots  of  sense,  they,  with  unwearied  pains 
Searching  for  soul,  find  something  they  call  brains  ; 
Happy  the  mystery  of  life  to  tell, 
By  help  of  glasses,  they  announce  a  cell ; 
And  thereupon  they  would  the  world  persuade 
They  know  exactly  how  that  man  is  made  ; 
'Tween  nought  and  nought,  his  origin  and  end, 
A  cell  is  all,  and  all  on  this  depend  ; 
They  pare  his  being,  make  it  less  and  less, 
Until  they  reach  the  goal  of  nothingness. 
Their  boasted  methods  failing  to  find  out 
The  soul's  high  essence,  they  affect  to  doubt ; 
To  their  own  notions  obstinately  wed, 


THE    MICROCOSM.  23 

They  vainly  seek  the  living  'mong  the  dead  ; 
By  learning  mad,  these  noodles  of  the  schools 
Are  but  a  kind  of  higher  class  of  fools. 

Who  follows  matter  through  its  countless  shapes, 
While  still  it  vanishes  and  still  escapes  ; 
O'er  eagerly  pursues  the  flying  feet 
Of  natural  causes  farther  than  is  meet, 
Losing  all  trace,  and  drawing  thence  too  near, 
Into  the  bottomless  obscure  falls  sheer  ; 
With  atheistic  cant,  then  God  ignores, 
And  turns  the  Maker  fairly  out  of  doors  ; 
Deems  certainties  of  consciousness  weigh  less 
Than  the  presumptions  of  a  learned  guess. 

Common  Sense. 

Presumptuous  though  it  be,  I,  with  a  calm 
Audacity  of  faith,  believe  I  am  ; 
Nor  venture  with  a  Maker  to  dispense, 
But  trust  the  sanities  of  Common  Sense  ; 
Hold  life,  despite  of  failure  to  extract, 
A  thing  of  firm  reality  and  fact  ; 
Accept  the  truth,  engraven  on  my  heart, 
I  have  a  spiritual  and  immortal  part. 
If  this  great  universe  is  a  deceit, 


24  THE    MICROCOSM. 

I  am  not  able  to  detect  the  cheat  ; 
Nor  dare  I  tell  the  Author  of  the  Skies 
That  He  has  built  on  rottenness  and  lies. 

Invocation. 

Dear  God  !  this  BODY,  which,  with  wondrous  art 
Thou  hast  contrived,  and  finished  part  by  part, 
Itself  a  universe,  a  lesser  all, 
The  greater  cosmos  crowded  in  the  small — 
I  kneel  before  it,  as  a  thing  divine  ; 
For  such  as  this,  did  actually  enshrine 
Thy  gracious  Godhead  once,  when  Thou  didst  make 
Thyself  incarnate,  for  my  sinful  sake. 
Thou  who  hast  done  so  very  much  for  me, 

0  let  me  do  some  humble  thing  for  Thee  ! 

1  would  to  every  Organ  give  a  tongue, 
That  Thy  high  praises  may  be  fitly  sung  ; 
Appropriate  ministries  assign  to  each, 
The  least  make  vocal,  eloquent  to  teach. 

Flesh  Garment — Skin,  its  Moral  Character. 

How  beautiful,  and  delicate,  and  fresh, 
Appear  the  Soul's  Habiliments  of  Flesh  ! 
How  closely  fitting,  easy  yet,  and  broad, 


THE    MICROCOSM.  25 

Each  Tissue  woven  in  the  loom  of  God  ! 
Compared  with  that  magnificence  of  dress, 
Wherewith  is  clothed  the  Spirit's  nakedness, 
O  how  contemptible  and  mean  a  thing, 
The  purple  and  fine  linen  of  a  king  ! 
The  spotless  vesture  of  the  silky  SKIN, 
Outside  of  all,  and  covering  all  within, 
With  what  a  marvellous  and  matchless  grace, 
Is  it  disposed  and  moulded  to  each  place  ; 
Bounding  and  beautifying  brow  and  breast, 
A  crowning  loveliness  to  all  the  rest  ! 
Endowed  with  wondrous  properties  of  soul 
That  interpenetrate  and  fill  the  whole — 
A  raiment,  moral,  maidenly  and  white, 
Shamed  at  each  breach  of  decency  and  right, 
Where  dwells  a  charm  above  the  charms  of  sense, 
Suggestive  of  the  soul's  lost  innocence. 

Pathognomy. 

Who  has  not  seen  that  Feeling,  born  of  flame,* 
Crimson  the  cheek  at  mention  of  a  name  ? 
The  rapturous  touch  of  some  divine  surprise 

*  Aristotle  calls  Love,  "  n   depjuov   irpdyfja" — a  certain  fiery  thing. 


26  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Flash  deep  suffusion  of  celestial  dyes  ; 

When  hands  clasped  hands,  and  lips  to  lips  were  pressed, 

And  the  heart's  secret  was  at  once  confessed  ? 

Lo,  the  young  mother,  when  her  infant  first 
Gropes  for  the  fountain  whence  to  quench  its  thirst  ; 
With  outstretched  tiny  hands,  to  eager  lips 
Conveys  the  nipple,  and  the  nectar  sips  ; — 
As  on  her  yearning  breast,  she  feels  the  warm 
Delicious  clasp  of  its  embracing  arm, 
How  thrills  the  bosom,  and  how  streams  the  wine  ! 
How  her  frame  trembles  with  a  Joy  divine  ! 

Not  Joy,  not  Love  alone  here  take  their  rise, 
The  chosen  seat  of  mighty  sympathies  ; 
Electric  with  all  life,  Religious  Awe 
Here  holds  its  empire  and  asserts  its  law. 
At  dead  of  night  when  deep  sleep  falls  on  men, 
Terror  and  trembling  came  upon  me  ;  then 
A  spirit  passed  before  my  face  ;  the  hair 
Stood  up  upon  my  shuddering  flesh — and  there 
Was  silence — all  my  bones  did  shake — 
A  voice  the  preternatural  stillness  brake  : 
"Shall  mortal  man,  whose  origin  is  dust, 
Arraign  his  Maker,  claim  to  be  more  just  ?" 

Contending  Passions  jostle  and  displace 


THE    MICROCOSM,  2^ 

And  tilt  and  tourney  mostly  in  the  Face  ; 

Phantasmagoric  shapes  appear  and  pass, 

Distinctly  pictured  in  that  magic  glass  ; 

Their  several  natures,  instantly  imbued 

With  the  complexion  of  the  changeful  mood — 

Ashes  of  Grief,  and  pallor  of  Affright, 

Blackness  of  Rage,  and  Hatred's  wicked  white, 

The  immortal  radiance  of  Faith  and  Hope, 

Like  that  which  streamed  on  Stephen's  from  the  cope  ; 

The  hidden  depths  of  being,  stirred  below, 

Thoughts,  passions,  feelings,  upward  mount  for  show  ; 

Unmatched  by  Art,  upon  this  wondrous  scroll 

Portrayed  are  all  the  secrets  of  the  Soul  ; 

Upon  this  palimpsest,  writ  o'er  and  o'er, 

Each  passing  hour  is  busy  penning  more  ; 

Events,  that  make  the  history  within, 

There  published  on  the  surface  of  the  Skin. 

Interior  View — Skin  Dissected. 

What  lies  below  this  beautiful  outside? 
What  proofs  of  power  and  wisdom  does  it  hide  ? 
To  eyes  instructed  and  divinely  keen, 
The  Shekinah,  the  Cherubim  between, 
Was  not  more  visible  than  the  Godhead  here, 


THE    MICROCOSM. 

Nor  spake  more  audibly  to  human  ear. 
For  from  the  centre  to  this  far  extreme, 
And  corporal  shore  of  being,  Love  supreme 
Its  miracles  magnificent  has  wrought, 
Embodying  the  Maker's  perfect  thought. 

Would  you  explore  the  Mysteries  of  Life  ? 
Dissect  in  fear,  use  reverently  the  knife — 
All  was  made  sacred  to  some  holy  use, 
Whate'er  the  profanations  of  abuse — 
Cut  not  with  blundering  and  careless  hand, 
If  you  the  fleshly  maze  would  understand  ; 
For  that  the  task  is  difficult,  it  needs 
The  skill  and  knowledge  which  experience  breeds. 

Blending  of  Contraries — Structural  Details. 

Now  that  the  Dermal  Covering  is  cut  through, 
And  its  interior  structure  brought  to  view, 
Pause,  if  you  will,  and  let  your  aided  sight 
Peruse  the  wonders  of  Creative  Might. 
Admire  the  skill  that  can  in  one  combine 
A  Sensibility  and  a  Touch  so  fine — 
Making  the  Skin  throughout  the  purpose  serve 
Of  one  ubiquitous  great  surface  nerve, 
That  finest  needle,  would  it  entrance  gain, 


THE    MICROCOSM.  29 

Must  pierce  the  sense  and  stab  the  soul  with  pain  ; 

Where  camping  armies  of  papillae  wait, 

Manning  each  fortress,  guarding  every  gate, 

Armed  at  all  points,  and  vigilant  as  fear, 

To  sound  th'  alarm  when  danger  hovers  near — 

And  yet,  despite  this  nicety  of  sense, 

Formed  for  coarse  uses,  and  for  rough  defense  ; — 

An  imbricated  Armor,  scale  on  scale  * 

Twelve  thousand  millions  form  a  coat  of  mail, 

Flexile  and  fine,  or  horny  else  and  hard, 

The  trembling  nakedness  of  sense  to  guard  ; 

A  colored  Rete  delicately  spun, 

Quenching  the  fiery  arrows  of  the  sun, 

Spreads  soft  above,  and  undulating  dips 


*The  Skin  as  here  described  includes:  i.  The  Cuticle  with  its  innumerable 
microscopic  tiles  specially  designed  for  defence.  2.  The  Rete  Mucosum,  the  seat  of 
color.  3.  The  Corium  or  True  Skin,  consisting  of  two  non-separable  layers — the 
upper,  papillary  and  sensitive  ;  the  lower,  firm  and  fibrous.  4.  Perspiratory  tubes •, 
convoluted  beneath  the  true  skin,  their  spiral  ducts  opening  obliquely  under  the 
scales  of  the  Cuticle,  their  office  being  to  purify  and  cool  the  body.  5.  Sebaceous 
Follicles,  or  Oil  Glands,  seated  in  the  substance  of  the  skin,  serving  to  soften  and 
lubricate  the  surface,  furnishing  likewise,  perhaps,  6,  that  Distinctive  Odor  pecu- 
liar to  each  individual  whereby  he  sows  himself  on  all  the  winds,  and  perfumes 
with  every  footstep  the  ground  over  which  he  passes.  7.  The  Hair,  implanted  by 
a  bulbous  root  in  the  fibrous  layer  of  the  Corium,  which  being  contractile  shrinks 
under  the  influence  of  great  fear  or  horror,  and  as  the  poet  says  : 
11  Makes  each  particular  hair  to  stand  on  end 

Like  quills  upon  the  fretful  porcupine" — 

quills  in  the  porcupine,  feathers  in  the  bird,  wool  and  hair  in  the  quadruped,  all 
belonging  to  the  same  category.  Hair  in  man,  not  being  needed  for  warmth  or 
covering  as  in  the  lower  lives,  is  gathered  to  the  head  and  appropriately  crowns  it. 


3°  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Between  the  sentient  papillary  tips, 

Part  of  the  duplex  Corium  beneath 

Forming  a  continent  elastic  sheath, 

Felted  and  firm  and  suitable  to  bind, 

Muscle  andviscus  to  the  place  assigned  ; 

Where,  nine  full  leagues  of  Tubing  buried  lie — 

All  convoluted  opening  to  the  sky, 

Transmitting  formed  impurities  within, 

Through  doors  and  windows  of  the  porous  skin, 

Th'  exuding  moisture  tempering  inward  flame, 

Cooling  the  fever  of  the  heated  frame — 

Fountlets  and  Rivulets  of  Oil  below, 

Preserving  softness,  ever  spring  and  flow  ; 

Musk  emanations — to  the  dog  defined, 

Snuffing  his  master  on  the  scented  wind — 

Hair,  not  for  warmth  or  dress,  here  sparsely  spread, 

Reserved  to  ornament  the  regal  head, 

Around  the  brow  of  Eva  thickly  curled 

And  crowning  Adam  monarch  of  the  world. 

Voluntary  Muscles — Their  Office  and  Work. 

Lifting  this  threefold  Veil,  we  find — beneath 
A  dense,  enclosing,  universal  sheath — * 

*  The  enveloping  aponeurosis  or  fascia  binding  down  the  muscles. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  31 

The  subject  MUSCLES — *  girded  to  fulfil 
The  lightning  mandates  of  the  sovereign  Will — 
Th'  abounding  means  of  motion,  wherein  lurk 
Man's  infinite  capacity  for  work  ; 
By  which,  as  taste  or  restless  nature  bids, 
He  rears  the  Parthenon  or  Pyramids  ; 
In  high  achievements  of  the  plastic  art, 
Fulfils  th'  ambitious  purpose  of  his  heart ; 
Creates  a  grace  outrivaling  his  own, 
Charming  all  eyes — the  poetry  of  stone  ; 
Symbols  his  faith,  as  in  Cathedrals — vast 
Religious  petrifactions  of  the  Past  : 
Covers  the  land  with  cities  ;  makes  all  seas 
White  with  the  sails  of  countless  argosies  ; 
Pushes  the  ocean  back  with  all  her  waves, 
And  from  her  haughty  sway  a  kingdom  saves  ; 
Tunnels  high  mountains,  Erebus  unbars, 
And  through  it  rolls  the  thunder  of  his  cars  ; 
With  stalwart  arm,  defends  down-trodden  right, 


*  Some  authors  reckon  the  number  of  Muscles  in  the  Human  Body  as  high  as 
527.  They  have  been  divided  into  Voluntary  (forming  the  red  flesh,  or  the  main 
bulk  of  the  body);  Involuntary^uc\i  as  the  heart,  fleshy  fibres  of  the  stomach, 
etc. ;  and  Mixed^  such  as  the  muscles  of  respiration,  etc.  Each  Muscle  is  made  up 
of  an  indefinite  number  of  fibres,  which  may  be  considered  as  so  many  muscles  in 
miniature,  along  which  stream  the  currents  of  the  Will.  Yet  with  all  this  complex 
apparatus  everything  is  in  harmony. 


32  THE    MICROCOSM. 

And,  like  a  whirlwind,  sweeps  the  field  of  fight  ; 
And  when,  at  last,  the  war  is  made  to  cease, 
On  firm  foundations  stablishes  a  peace  ; 
Then  barren  wastes  with  nodding  harvests  sows, 
And  makes  the  desert  blossom  as  the  rose. 

Muscular  Dynamics — Directing  Power    Where? 

Bundles  of  fleshy  fibres  without  end, 
Along  the  bony  Skeleton  extend 
In  thousand-fold  directions  from  fixed  points 
To  act  their  several  parts  upon  the  Joints  ; 
Adjustments  nice  of  means  to  ends  we  trace, 
With  each  dynamic  filament  in  place  ; 
But  where's  the  Hand  that  grasps  the  million  reins 
Directs  and  guides  them,  quickens  or  restrains  ? 

See  the  musician,   at  his  fingers'  call, 
All  sweet  sounds  scatter,  fast  as  rain-drops  fall  ; 
With  flying  touch,  he  weaves  the  web  of  song, 
Rhythmic  as  rapid,  intricate  as  long. 
Whence  this  precision,  delicacy  and  ease  ? 
And  where's  the  Master  that  defines  the  keys  ? 

The  many-jointed  Spine,  with  link  and  lock 
To  make  it  flexile  while  secure  from  shock, 
Is  pierced  throughout,  in  order  to  contain 


THE    MICROCOSM.  33 

The  downward  prolongation  of  the  brain  ; 
From  which,  by  double  roots,  the  NERVES*  arise — 
One  Feeling  gives,  one  Motive  Power  supplies  ; 
In  opposite  directions,  side  by  side, 
With  mighty  swiftness  there  two  currents  glide — 
Winged,  head  and  heel,  the  Mercuries  of  Sense  f 
Mount  to  the  regions  of  Intelligence  ; 
Instant  as  light,  the  nuncios  of  the  throne 
Command  the  Muscles  that  command  the  Bone. 
Each  morning  after  slumber,  brave  and  fresh, 
The  Moving  Army  of  the  Crimson  Flesh, 
From  fields  of  former  conquests,  marching  comes 
To  the  grand  beating  of  unnumbered  drums — J 
Each  martial  Fibre  pushing  to  the  van 
To  make  "  I  will  "  the  equal  of  "  I  can"; 

*  For  the  benefit  of  the  general  reader,  presumably  not  familiar  with  anatomi- 
cal details,  we  may  state  that  there  are  43  pairs  of  nerves  in  all,  /.  e,  12  Cranial  or 
Encephalic  and  31  Spinal.  The  first  have  only  one  root  in  the  brain,  whilst  the 
latter  arise  by  two  roots  from  the  anterior  and  posterior  halves  of  the  spinal  mar- 
row, but  unite  immediately  afterwards  to  form  one  nerve.  Division  of  the  ante- 
rior root  causes  loss  of  motion— of  the  posterior  the  loss  of  sensation.  The  first 
transmit  volitions  from  the  brain,  the  latter  sensitive  impressions  to  the  brain. 

t  Helmholtz  has  instituted  experiments  to  determine  the  rapidity  of  transmis- 
sion of  the  nervous  actions.  For  sensation  the  rate  of  movement  assigned  is  one 
hundred  and  eighty  to  three  hundred  feet  per  second.  Muscular  contraction,  or 
shortening  of  the  muscular  fibre  takes  place,  at  times,  with  extreme  velocity ;  a 
single  thrill,  in  the  letter  R.,  can  be  pronounced  in  the  i-3o,oooth  part  of  a  minute. 
There  are  insects  whose  wings  strike  the  air  thousands  of  times  in  a  minute.  The 
Jorce  of  contraction  (Myodynamis)  is  most  remarkable  in  some  of  these.  In  birds, 
the  absolute  power  in  proportion  to  the  weight  of  the  body  is  as  10,000  to  i. 

$  The  heart  and  arteries. 

3 


34  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Testing  the  possibilities  ot  power 
In  deeds  of  daring  suited  to  the  hour ; 
Doing  its  utmost  to  build  up  the  health 
And  glory  of  the  inner  Commonwealth. 
Levers  and  fulcra  everywhere  we  find, 
But  where's  the  great  Archimedean  Mind, 
That  on  some  POU  STO,*  outside  and  above, 
Plants  its  firm  foot  this  living  world  to  move  ? 

Cranium — Soul 's  Firmament — Brain. 

Find  it  we  shall,  if  anywhere  we  can, 
Doubtless,  in  that  high  Capitol  of  man, 
Whose  Spheric  Walls,  concentric  to  the  cope, 
Were  built  to  match  the  nature  of  his  Hope. 
What  seems  the  low  vault  of  a  narrow  tomb, 
Is  the  Soul's  sky,  where  it  has  ample  room  ; 
As  apt  through  this,  its  crystalline,  to  pass, 
As  though  it  were  diaphanous  as  glass. 
When  Sense  is  dark,  it  is  not  dark,  but  light, 
Itself  a  sun,  that  banishes  the  night, 
Shedding  a  morning,  beauteous  to  see, 
On  the  horizon  of  Eternity. 

*  Archimedes  used  to  say,  "  Give  a  place  where  I  may  stand  (c5of  TTOV  ffr 
and  I  can  move  the  world." 


THE  MICROCOSM.  35 

Strange,  a  frail  link  and  manacle  of  BRAIN 

So  long  below  suffices  to  detain 

A  principle,  so  radiant  and  high, 

So  restless,  strong,  and  fitted  for  the  sky. 

Mind's  Organ — City  of  the  Dead. 

Here  mounted,  standing  on  the  topmost  towers, 
Up  to  the  roof  of  this  high  dome  of  ours, 
With  the  Mind's  Organ  in  our  hands,  what  new 
Secrets  of  structure  strike  th'  astonished  view? 
A  weird  and  wonderful,  and  fragile  mass 
Of  white  and  gray  * — deserted  now,  alas  ! 
All  knowledge  quite  razed  out  ;  no  trace 
Of  things  which  were  ;  now  mourns  each  happy  place, 


*  The  Nervous  System  everywhere  consists  of  two  kinds  of  tissue— White  and 
Gray.  The  White  forms  the  nerves^  the  exterior  of  the  spinal  cord,  and  the  central 
parts  of  the  brain  and  cerebellum  (where  it  is  soft,  like  curdled  cream,  but  is 
firmer  in  the  nerves),  composed  everywhere  of  parallel  fibres  or  threads  of  extreme 
fineness,  which  form  the  CHANNELS  of  nervous  power  and  influence  to  and  from 
the  GANGLIONIC  CENTRES — Sources,  both  great  and  small,  of  this  influence.  These 
constitute  the  Gray  substance  found  in  the  central  parts  of  the  spinal  cord,  at  the 
base  of  the  brain  in  isolated  masses,  and  the  exterior  of  the  cerebrum  and  cerebel- 
lum, where  to  economize  space  it  lies  in  folds,  dipping  down  into  the  interior,  and 
forming  the  convolutions.  It  is  found  also  in  the  ganglia  of  the  Great  Sympa- 
thetic. Condensely  stated,  the  gray  ganglia  originate  nervous  power,  the  white 
nervous  filaments  only  transmit  it.  The  Hemispherical  Ganglia  (the  plaited  or 
convoluted  cortex  of  the  cerebrum  forming  about  nine-tenths  of  the  whole  mass 
of  the  brain),  although  entirely  destitute  of  both  sensibility  and  excitability,  are 
believed  to  be  on  good  grounds  the  special  seat,  so  far  as  these  can  be  said  to  have 
any,  of  the  intellectual  faculties — memory,  reason,  judgment  and  the  like.  Im- 
pressions, conveyed  to  the  Spinal  Cord,  i.  e.  its  ganglionic  centre,  are  there  organ- 


36  THE   MICROCOSM. 

Where  frolicked  once  the  Children  of  the  Mind, 

Of  all  the  number,  not  one  left  behind  ; 

No  vestige  of  the  battle  and  the  strife  ; 

None,  of  the  conquests  that  ennobled  life. 

Hid  is  the  maze  where  Doubt  was  wont  to  grope  ; 

Hid  the  starved  fibre  of  a  perished  Hope ; 

Hid  the  tough  sinews  of  a  wrestling  Faith, 

The  Christian  Athlete  matched  with  Sin  and  Death. ; 

Hid  all  the  teeth-prints  of  the  wolves  of  Grief, 

A  savage  pack,  of  which  Remorse  is  chief. 

How  strange,  of  all  the  wounds  our  comforts  mar, 

That  of  the  fellest  we  should  find  no  scar ! 

None  can  point  out  where  UNDERSTANDING  dwelt ; 
None,  the  high  places  where  RELIGION  knelt — 
The  spot  where  REVERENCE,  with  feet  unshod, 
Came  to  consult  the  Oracle  of  God. 

The  crypts  and  catacombs,  where  MEMORY  cast 
The  bones  of  all  the  dead  of  all  the  Past ; 


ically^  not  intellectually  perceived,  and  the  movements  which  follow  are  such  as 
are  dictated  by  supreme  organic  wisdom,  forming  indeed  an  admirable  mimicry 
of  conscious  sensation  and  voluntary  action,  but  mimicry  only,  for  both  are  really 
absent.  This  belongs  to  what  is  called  "reflex  action,"  and  explains  automatic 
function  and  phenomena,  of  which  life  is  full.  It  is  not,  it  is  believed,  until  im- 
pressions have  reached  the  ganglion  of  the  Tuber  Annulare  that  they  are  con- 
verted into  conscious  sensations  and  excite  voluntary  movements.  And  only  when 
they  have  mounted  to  the  Hemispheres,  the  ganglia  of  thought  and  feeling,  that 
they  become  the  property  of  the  intellect  and  are  made  the  grounds  of  rational 
conduct. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  37 

Shelves,  where  were  stowed  all  libraries  of  man, 

All  gray  traditions,  since  the  world  began  ; 

All  literatures,  religions,  kinds  and  parts 

Of  knowledge,  laws,  philosophies  and  arts  ; 

All  actions,  all  articulated  breath — 

The  Book  of  Life,  and,  ah  !  the  Book  of  Death,— 

Wherein,  whatever  fatal  leaf  it  turned, 

Its  former  self  the  guilty  'soul  discerned, 

Mirrored  entire — seen  outside  and  within 

In  every  form  and  attitude  of  sin  ; 

Th'  inevitable  reflection,  imaged  there, 

True  to  the  life,  like  pictures  of  Daguerre  ; 

The  very  scene,  in  which  each  deed  was  done, 

Painted  in  all  the  colors  of  the  sun  ; 

So  faithful,  fresh,  time,  circumstance  and  act, 

The  past  reality  seemed  present  fact — 

There  field,  and  weapon,  and  the  riven  brain 

Of  Abel  smitten  by  the  hand  of  Cain, 

And  blood,  with  red  moist  lips,  in  Pity's  ears 

Crying  for  vengeance  through  eternal  years, 

Th'  unwashed  crimson  of  the  guilty  sod 

As  in  the  eye  and  memory  of  God. 

IMAGINATION'S  skyey  seat,  where  came 
For  soaring  flight  the  demigods  of  fame, 


38  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Home  of  the  Muses,  fair  and  forked  Mount 
Of  high  Parnassus,  and  Castalian  Fount, 
Whence  issued  streams  that  watered  all  the  earth, 
Then  most,  when  blind  Mceonides  had  birth  ; 
And  Zion's  holier  Hill,  and  Siloe's  Brook, 
Warbling  forever,  in  blind  Milton's  book  ; 
The  topmost  peak  where  Shakespeare  took  his  stand. 
And  waved  his  wand  of  power  o'er  sea  and  land. 
Strange,  that  so  sweet  and  heavenly  a  hill, 
Should  breed  fierce  dragons,  ravenous  beasts  of  ill — 
"  Gorgons  and  hydras,  and  chimeras  dire,' 
Monsters  of  hideous  shapes,  with  tongues  of  fire — 
Have  rifted  rocks  whose  entrance  leads  to  hell, 
And  the  damned  wizard  of  the  mighty  spell, 
Making  its  precincts  all  enchanted  ground, 
Turning  to  horror  every  sight  and  sound, 
With  grisly  terrors,  straight  from  Acheron, 
Peopling  each  nook,  and  darkening  all  the  sun. 

None  can  the  judgment  seat  of  CONSCIENCE  show,, 
That  highest  Court  and  Parliament  below, 
Where,  sole  and  sovereign,  seated  on  her  throne, 
She  recognized  th'  Infallible  alone. 
To  her,  the  keys  of  heaven  and  earth  were  given, 
And  what  she  bound  on  earth  was  bound  in  heaven.. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  39 

By  the  clear  light,  which  her  decisions  shed, 
Instructed  feet  in  pleasant  ways  were  led, 
Martyrs  were  pointed  to  the  neighboring  sky, 
And  Patriots  taught  how  sweet  it  is  to  die. 

Where  these  had  their  high  dwelling,  we,  in  vain, 
Seek  in  this  packed  and  folded  pulp  of  brain. 
Judged,  by  the  ignorant  regards  of  sense, 
How  mean  !    by  heights  of  function,  how  immense  ! 
To  reason  and  the  vision  of  shut  eyes 
Its  infinite  expandings  fill  the  skies. 
What  regions  of  sublimity  once  there  ! 
What  mountains  soaring  in  the  upper  air  ! 
Not  thunder  scarred  Acroceraunian*  peak, 
Alpine  or  Himalayan  loftier  than  the  Greek, 
So  high  so  hidden — from  whose  secret  tops, 
Keener  than  needles,  trickled  the  first  drops 
Of  rising  rivers,  flowing  silently 
Into  the  cerebral  deep  drainless  sea, 
From  which,  as  from  a  mighty  fountain-head, 
Life's  crystal  waters  everywhere  were  spread, 


*  A  range  of  very  high  mountains  in  Greece  (from  <5/cpor,  extreme,  and 
Kcpauvdf,  thunderbolt),  so  called  because  their  peaks  are  often  struck  by  light- 
ning. 


40  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Coursing  in  liquid  lapse  through  Channels  White,* 
Swift  as  the  lightning,  stainless  as  the  light, 
Conveying  to  each  atom  of  the  whole 
Volitions,  animations,  power  and  soul. 

Once  beautiful  for  situation,  gem 
And  joy  of  the  whole  earth,  Jerusalem, 
How  sits  she  solitary  !  she  that  was  great 
Among  the  nations,  now  left  desolate  ! 
Th'  adversary  hath  spread  out  his  hand 
On  all  her  pleasant  things  and  spoiled  the  land  ; 
Her  gates  are  sunk  into  the  ground  ;  the  rent 
And  ruined  rampart  and  the  wall  lament ; 
Her  palaces  are  swallowed  up  ;  the  Lord 
His  altar  hath  cast  off  ;    He  hath  abhorred 
His  sanctuary  even  ;  hath  o'erthrown 
And  pitied  not,  nor  cared  to  spare  His  own. 

*  The  Nerves  are  composed  of  bundles  of  minute  fibres  or  filaments,  averaging 
1-2,000  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  Each  filament  consists  of  a  colorless,  transparent, 
tubular  membrane,  containing  a  thick,  softish,  semi-fluid  nervous  matter  which  is 
white  and  glistening  by  reflected  light.  Running  through  the  central  part  is  a 
longitudinal  grayish  band,  called  "  the  axis  of  the  cylinder."  Branches  of  a  nerve 
are  merely  separations  and  new  directions  of  some  of  the  filaments  of  the  bundle, 
these  being  always  continuous  from  their  origin  to  their  point  of  distribution, 
which  prevents  any  confusion  arising  from  a  running  together  of  impressions. 
The  nervous  tree,  like  that  of  the  blood  vessels,  is  so  vast,  that  in  its  totality, 
exhibited  separately,  it  would  give  almost  an  outline  of  the  human  form.  The 
circulation  of  a  nervous  fluid,  though  not  demonstrable,  has  been  hypothetically 
deduced  from  the  tubular  structure  of  the  nerves  and  other  considerations. 
Assuming  the  fact,  the  whole  body  may  be  said  to  swim  in  this  vital  sea,  having 
its  analogy  in  that  higher  or  divine  animation,  described  as  being  "  filled  with  the 
Spirit." 


THE    MICROCOSM.  41 

The  Eye,  and  its  Correlative. 

The  ways  of  Zion  mourn  ;  funereal  gloom 
Pills  every  habitation  like  a  tomb  ; 
Closed  is  each  port,  and  window  of  the  mind  ; 
And  there  is  none  to  look — the  EYE  is  blind. 
How  different  once,  when  in  that  little  Sphere 
"The  glorious  universe  was  pictured  clear ! 
O  what  an  Organ  that  !  germane  to  Light, 
~VVhose  own  relations  too  are  such  to  sight, 
T'were  hard  to  say,  the  two  so  nicely  fit, 
Made  was  the  eye  for  light,  or  light  for  it. 
Ne'er  were  two  lovers,  separate  by  space, 
More  eager,  fond,  impatient  to  embrace, 
Than  that  sweet  splendor — streaming  from  afar, 
Traveling  for  ages  from  some  distant  star, 
Straight  as  an  arrow  speeding  from  the  bow — 
.And  that  dear  Eyeball  waiting  here  below. 

Light  has  no  Manifesting  Power  without  the  Eye. 

Prime  work  of  God  !  upon  the  bended  knee 
The  whole  creation  homage  pays  to  thee  ; 
Prom  night  and  chaos  countless  suns  emerge 
That  all  their  beamings  may  in  thee  converge, 


42  THE   MICROCOSM. 

Since  wholly  vain  and  useless  were,  they  know, 

Without  the  Eye  to  see,  their  light  to  show  ; 

They  roll  in  darkness,  quenched  their  every  ray, 

Till  thy  lids  opening  change  the  night  to  day. 

Placed,  for  commanding  and  enjoying  these, 

In  the  dread  centre  of  immensities, 

The  depths  thou  searchest  and  the  heights  supreme,. 

Ranging  at  will  from  this  to  that  extreme. 

Where  space  is  dark  to  thy  unaided  sight, 

Thither  thou  turn'st  thy  telescope  of  might, 

And  in  the  heart  of  the  abysmal  gloom 

Behold'st  celestial  gardens  all  abloom — 

Brave  starry  blossomings  and  clusters  fine 

Loading  the  branches  of  the  heavenly  vine  ; 

See'st  suns,  like  dust,  lie  scattered  'long  the  road 

That  leads  to  that  far  Paradise  of  God, 

From  this  to  yonder,  who  the  leagues  can  tell  ? 

One  might  compute  the  ocean's  drops  as  well. 

Turn  now  !  the  nether  infinite  explore  ! 

Extend  thy  vision  as  thou  did'st  before  !* 

Pierce  downwards,  pierce  to  the  concealed  minute^ 

The  ultimates  of  things,  the  germ,  the  root, 

*  For  example,  with  a  Microscope  that  magnifies  a  million  times. 


THE   MICROCOSM.  43 

The  atom  world, — so  near  and  yet  so  far 
Not  more  remote  is  the  remotest  star — 
To  forms  of  life  to  which,  O  can  it  be  ? 
A  drop  of  water  is  a  shoreless  sea  ! 
So  vast  thy  sweep,  it  surely  were  not  strange 
If  eye  angelic  had  no  wider  range. 
Even  so  !     On  earth  or  in  the  realms  of  air 
Nothing  is  fair  but  as  thou  mak'st  it  fair — 
•In  face  or  flower  or  iris  braided  rain, 
Beauty  exists  not  or  exists  in  vain  ; 
Without  thy  power  to  paint  them  or  perceive 
There  were  no  gorgeous  shows  of  morn  and  eve. 

Light  lost  in  the  Eye  reappears  in  the  Consciousness. 

How  wonderful,  that  organs  made  of  clay 
Should  drink  so  long  th'  abundance  of  the  day  ! 
Receive  the  constant  unreturning  tides 
Of  sun  and  moon  and  all  the  stars  besides  ! 
Not  lost  is  all  this  mighty  wealth  of  beams — 
Rivers  of  light,  innumerable  streams, 
Flow  darkling  for  a  space,  then  spring  again 
To  join  the  Arethusas  *  of  the  brain, 

*  The  river  Alpheus  in  Elis  is  fabled  to  flow  under  the  earth  to  Sicily  and  to 
unite  with  the  fountain  Arethusa ;  hence  Arethusa,  a  nymph,  whose  lover  was 
Alpheus. 


44  THE   MICROCOSM. 

In  bliss  of  married  consciousness  to  be 
Fountains  of  brightness  through  eternity. 

Tears — Sleep,  its  Resuscitating  Power — Organic  Life. 

Since  man  was  born  to  trouble  here  below, 
Tears  were  provided  for  predestined  woe  ; 
And  tears  have  fallen  in  perpetual  shower 
From  man's  apostasy  until  this  hour, 
But  there's  the  promise  of  a  future  day 
When  God's  dear  hand  shall  wipe  all  tears  away. 

On  eyes  that  watch  as  well  as  eyes  that  weep 
Descends  the  solemn  mystery  of  Sleep. 
Toiling  and  climbing  to  the  very  close, 
The  weary  Body,  longing  for  repose, 
On  the  gained  level  of  the  day's  ascent, 
Halts  for  the  night  and  pitches  there  its  tent  ; 
Then,  sinking  down,  is     'gulfed     in  an  abyss 
As  deep  and  dark  as  the  abodes  of  Dis.* 
Rather,  returns  into  the  peaceful  gloom 
And  blank  unconsciousness  of  Nature's  womb, 
Where  plastic  forces  work,  to  be  next  morn 
To  a  new  life  and  mightier  vigor  born — 

*  Domos  Ditis. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  45 

Prepared  to  run  again  Life's  upward  way 

Scaling  the  misty  summits  of  To-Day ; 

Lo  !  height  o'er  height,  through  all  the  years,  they  rise, 

Supplying  steps  by  which  to  mount  the  skies, 

Ladder,  like  Jacob's,  heavenly,  complete, 

Whose  radiant  rounds  were  for  angelic  feet. 

From  night's  dark  caves  spring  evermore,  in  truth, 

Fountains  of  freshness  and  perpetual  youth  ; 

This  seeming  death,  with  consciousness  at  strife, 

Is  health  and  happiness  and  length  of  life. 

There  is  within,  that  which  preserves  and  keeps — 

Organic  Providence  that  never  sleeps  •— 

When  the  slack  hand  of  Reason  drops  the  rein, 

This  drives  the  chariots  of  the  heart  and  brain. 

Were  life's  full  goblet  trusted  to  the  Will, 

Its  nerveless  hand  would  soon  its  contents  spill  ; 

The  Maker  so  was  careful  to  provide 

Another  principle  and  power  beside, 

Archeus,*  Instinct — any  name  may  serve — 


*  The  Archaeus  (from  Gr.  upxevu,  to  rule  ;  apXV>  beginning),  according  to  Van 
Helmont,  is  an  immaterial  principle,  existing  from  the  beginning  and  presiding 
over  the  development  of  the  body  and  over  all  organic  phenomena.  Besides  this 
chief  one,  which  he  located  in  the  upper  orifice  of  the  stomach,  he  admitted  several 
subordinates,  one  for  each  organ,  each  of  them  being  liable  to  anger,  caprice,  ter- 
ror, and  every  human  feeling. 


46  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Organic  Life,  Great  Sympathetic  Nerve,* 

With  Cerebellum,!  competent  to  save, 

And  rescue  from  the  clutches  of  the  grave, — 

When  Sleep  would  else  have  caused  immediate  death, 

Stopped  the  heart's  action,  and  cut  short  the  breath, 

Drying  each  source,  that  fed  and  kept  alive 

Th'  industrious  bees  in  the  organic  hive.J 


*  The  Great  Sympathetic  lies  in  front  and  along  the  sides  of  the  spine,  and  sup- 
plies the  organs  over  which  the  will  and  consciousness  have  no  immediate  control, 
such  as  the  intestines,  liver,  heart,  etc.  Its  numerous  ganglia  (centres  and  origi- 
nators of  nervous  influence)  are  the  knots  of  a  nervous  reticulation  which  connects 
not  only  the  organs  of  Organic  Life  one  with  the  other,  but  these  also  with  the 
brain  and  spinal  cord.  It  is  due  to  this-  -separately  or  conjointly  with  the  spinal 
cord  in  its  reflex  or  excito-motor  capacity,  derived  from  its  own  ganglionic  axis  or 
pith,  giving  it  also  independent  and  automatic  powers,  powers  not  sensibly  de- 
pendent upon  the  consciousness  or  will  for  their  exercise— that  all  the  vital  func- 
tions do  not  come  to  a  stand-still  in  our  first  slumber. 

t  The  opinion,  which  attributes  to  Cerebellum  the  power  of  associating  or  co- 
ordinating the  different  voluntary  movements,  is  the  one  now  most  generally  re- 
ceived. Destroyed,  the  gubernatorial  faculty  is  lost  and  the  animal  staggers  and 
falls  like  a  drunken  man.  In  addition  to  this,  it  has  been  supposed  that  whatever 
the  cerebrum  does  rationally  and  by  fits,  the  cerebellum  does  unconsciously  and 
permanently— so  that  in  sleep,  the  motions  of  thought  and  will  not  being  organi- 
cally but  only  consciously  suspended,  need  to  be  maintained  and  kept  up  to  their 
proper  level,  and  that  this  is  the  office  of  the  cerebellum,  which  like  the  chain  and 
springs  of  a  watch,  not  only  regulate  its  movements,  but  prevent  it  from  running 
suddenly  down. 

%  While  an  exaggerated  importance  may  have  been  given  to  the  doctrine  of  Cell 
Formation,  the  truth  of  it  seems  to  be  well  established.  The  statement  of  Virchow 
that  "  Every  animal  presents  itself  as  a  sum  of  vital  unities,  every  one  of  which 
manifests  all  the  characteristics  of  life,"  although  hypothetical,  at  least  in  part,  is 
a  convenient  formula  for  explaining  many  vital  phenomena  observed  both  in 
health  and  disease.  Receiving  it,  it  certainly  justifies  the  figure  here  used — the 
bee  working  with  a  blind  instinct,  being  compared  to  that  organic  intelligence, 
which  resident  in  each  cell  presides  over  the  functions  of  nutrition,  secretion  and 
elimination. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  47 

Spiritual  Analogies. 

As  light  to  Eye,  so  to  the  Soul,  in  sooth, 
The  light  of  God,  the  higher  light  of  Truth. 
How,  when  man  fell,  his  dark  and  hungry  eyes 
Looked  for  the  sunrise  in  the  eastern  skies  ! 
Filled  with  all  doubt,  and  wandering  forlorn, 
Watching  for  signs  of  the  delaying  morn  ! 
Ah  !   should  it  never  break,  the  stumbling  feet 
Go  stumbling  onward  to  the  Judgment  Seat  ; 
And  toward  the  guilty,  should  there  be  no  ruth 
In  the  just  bosom  of  the  God  of  Truth  ; 
Those  images  of  horror  and  affright, 
Projected  on  the  canvas  of  the  night, 
Should  aye  be  present,  wheresoe'er  he  turn, 
And  God's  fierce  anger  never  cease  to  burn  ! 
Ah!  when  the  parting  heavens  some  gleam  let  through, 
Some  gleam  of  promise  shining  through  the  blue, 
Ah,  more  !  when  that  the  Dayspring  from  on  high 
Told  that  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  was  nigh  ; — 
Waving  glad  wings  of  many  colored  flame, 
Fore-running  angels  certified  He  came  ; 
Then  most  of  all,  when  following  full  soon, 
Upon  his  midnight  burst  eternal  noon  ; 


48  THE   MICROCOSM. 

How  to  the  heavenly  host  his  pulses  beat, 
Timed  to  the  music  of  their  marching  feet ! 

Congenital  Blindness — Awards  of  the  Last  Day. 
Alas,  for  those,  who,  haply  blind  from  birth, 
Have  never  seen  the  loveliness  of  earth  ; 

I 

To  whose  rapt  gaze,  the  spectacle  ne'er  given 
Of  all  the  dread  magnificence  of  heaven  ; 
One  mighty  blank,  one  universal  black, 
The  moving  wonders  of  the  Zodiac  ; 
The  constellations  from  their  fixed  abode, 
Shed  no  sweet  influence  on  their  darkling  road  : 
Their  rolling  eyeballs  turn,  and  find  no  ray  ; 
An  unknown  joy,  the  blessedness  of  day. 

Between  the  man,  who,  in  his  neighbor's  grief, 
With  swiftest  pity,  flies  to  his  relief ; 
And  him,  whose  cruel  and  unnatural  part 
It  is  to  plague  and  wring  his  brother's  heart, 
How  deep  the  gulf  !  how  different  the  award 
At  the  great  final  coming  of  the  Lord  ! 
In  the  Last  Judgment,  all  the  world  shall  hear 
The  silent  thunder  prisoned  in  a  tear — * 

*  Faraday  has  shown  by  the  most  conclusive  experiments  that  the  electricity 
which  decomposes,  and  that  which  is  evolved  by  the  decomposition  of  a  certain 
quantity  of  matter  are  alike.  A  single  drop  of  water  therefore  contains  as  much 
electricity  as  could  be  accumulated  in  800,000  Leyden  jars — a  quantity  equal  to 
that  which  is  developed  from  a  charged  thunder -cloud. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  49 

The  pent  up  wrath  shall  strike  the  tyrant  there, 
Who  would  not  pity,  and  who  would  not  spare. 

Asylums  for  the  Blind. 

Thou,  who  wert  styled  th'  Apostle  of  the  Blind, 
No  bays  too  green,  thine  honored  brows  to  bind, 
Who  toiled  and  sacrificed  beyond  the  sea — 
Tis  right  to  name  thee,  Valentin  Haiiy  !* 
To  render  happier  a  cheerless  lot  ; 
Enrich  with  knowledge  those  who  have  it  not ; 
To  pour  new  light  into  the  darkened  mind, 
And  force  an  entrance  where  it  none  can  find  ; 
By  novel  methods,  and  ingenious  tools, 
Imparting  all  the  learning  of  the  schools  ; 
For  loss  of  one,  obtaining  recompense 
In  the  perfection  of  another  sense  ; — 
Inspiring  music,  bringing  heaven  so  near 
They  almost  think  they  see  it,  as  they  hear — 


*  Louis  IX.,  better  known  as  St.  Louis,  in  1260  founded  the  Hospice  des  Quinze 
Vingts  at  Paris — designed,  as  its  name  implies,  originally  for  15  score  or  300  per- 
sons— which  still  exists.  This  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  public  provision 
ever  made  for  the  Blind.  It  was  solely  eleemosynary.  No  instruction  was  at- 
tempted. Although  in  the  i6th  century  attempts  were  made  to  print  for  the 
Blind  in  intaglio  and  afterwards  in  relief,  nothing  material  was  accomplished, 
till  1784,  when  Valentin  Haiiy,  "the  apostle  of  the  blind"  as  the  French  named 
him,  commenced  his  arduous,  and  self-denying  labors,  and  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  modern  system.  His  pupils  became  eminent  as  musicians  or  mathematicians. 

4 


50  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Is  like  that  work,  in  kind  if  not  degree, 
Done  Bartimeus,  when  Christ  made  him  see. 

Asylums  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb. 

Not  less  their  praise,  nor  less  their  high  reward, 
Th'  unequaled  heroes  of  a  task  more  hard, 
Enthusiasts,  who  labored  to  bridge  o'er 
The  gulf  of  silence,  never  passed  before, 
To  reach  the  solitaire,  who  lived  apart,* 
Cut  off  from  commerce  with  the  human  heart ; 
To  whom  had  been,  all  goings  on  below, 
A  ceremonious  and  unmeaning  show  ; 
Men  met  in  council,  on  occasions  proud, 
Nought  but  a  mouthing  and  grimacing  crowd  ; 


*The  possibility  of  teaching  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  was  never  conceived  by  the  an- 
cients. Useless  to  the  State,  their  destruction  in  infancy  was  even  connived  at ;  and 
they  were  classed  legally  with  idiots  and  the  insane.  Plunged  in  a  night  of  the 
profoundest  ignorance,  sitting  apart  in  utter  loneliness,  their  state  was  the  saddest 
possible.  Attempts  to  instruct  them  belong  mostly  to  m«dern  times.  Three  sys- 
tems have  been  adopted  in  different  countries.  i.  That  of  Wallis,  Pereira 
Heinicke  and  Braidwood,  which  falsely  assumed  that  while  signs  may  give  vague 
ideas  there  can  be  no  precision  without  words.  Consequently  the  first  years  under 
this  system  were  devoted  almost  wholly  to  learning  articulation  and  reading  OE 
the  lip.  2.  That  of  abbd  De  1'Epde  as  improved  by  Sicard  and  Bebian,  which 
proceeds  on  the  directly  opposite  theory  that  there  is  no  idea  which  may  not  be 
expressed  by  signs  without  words.  Sign  language  has  the  important  advantage, 
besides  many  others  that  might  be  named,  of  being  universal.  3.  The  American 
system,which  is  a  further  modification  of  De  1'EpeVs.  The  number  of  deaf-mutes 
who  have  distinguished  themselves  in  science  and  art  is  already  quite  consider- 
able. My  friend,  Mr.  John  R.  Burnet,  farmer  and  author,  living  at  Livingston, 
N.  JM  is  one  of  the  best  informed  men  in  the  State. 


THE    MICRO  CO  SAT.  51 

And  all  the  great  transactions  of  the  time, 
An  idle  scene  or  puzzling  pantomime. 
Children  of  silence  !  deaf  to  every  sound 
That  trembles  in  the  atmosphere  around, 
Now  far  more  happy — dancing  ripples  break 
Upon  the  marge  of  that  once  stagnant  lake, 
Aye  by  fresh  breezes  overswept,  and  stirred 
With  the  vibrations  of  new  thoughts  conferred. 
No  more  your  minds  are  heathenish  and  dumb, 
Now  that  the  word  of  truth  and  grace  has  come  ; 
Your  silent  praise,  that  penitential  tear, 
Are  quite  articulate  to  your  Saviour's  ear. 

Hearing — Powers  of  Sound — Music  of  Nature. 

Within  a  bony  labyrinthean  cave, 
Reached  by  the  pulse  of  the  aerial  wave, 
This  sibyl,  sweet,  and  mystic  Sense  is  found, 
Muse,  that  presides  o'er  all  the  Powers  of  Sound. 
Viewless  and  numberless,  these  everywhere 
Wake  to  the  finest  tremble  of  the  air ; 
Now  from  some  mountain  height  are  heard  to  call  ; 
Now  from  the  bottom  of  some  waterfall; 
Now  faint  and  far,  now  louder  and  more  near, 
With  varying  cadence  musical  and  clear  ; 


52  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Heard  in  the  brooklet  murmuring  o'er  the  lea  ; 

Heard  in  the  roar  of  the  resounding  sea  ; 

Heard  in  the  thunder  rolling  through  the  sky  ; 

Heard  in  the  little  insect  chirping  nigh  ; 

The  winds  of  winter  wailing  through  the  woods  ; 

The  mighty  laughter  of  the  vernal  floods  ; 

The  rain-drops'  showery  dance  and  rhythmic  beat, 

With  twinkling  of  innumerable  feet  ; 

Pursuing  echoes  calling  'mong  the  rocks  ; 

Lowing  of  herds,  and  bleating  of  the  flocks  ; 

The  tender  nightingale's  melodious  grief  ; 

The  sky-lark's  warbled  rapture  of  belief — 

Arrow  of  praise,  direct  from  Nature's  quiver, 

Sent  duly  up  to  the  Almighty  Giver. 

Music  of  Art — Instrumental  and  Vocal. 

If  once,  ye  Powers,  with  reeds,  a  rustic  Pan, 
Ye  tuned  idyllic  minstrelsies  for  man, 
These  thin  dilutions  of  the  soul  of  song, 
Ye  have  abandoned,  and  abandoned  long. 
Sweet  as  the  spheral  music  of  the  skies, 
The  thunder  of  your  later  harmonies. 
O  fill  the  void  capacious  atmosphere 
With  your  full  sum,  and  pour  it  in  the  ear  ; 


THE    MICROCOSM.  53 

Drown  it  with  melody,  nor  let  it  wade 

Longer  in  shallows,  of  the  deep  afraid. 

Join  to  all  instruments  of  wind  and  cords 

The  poetry  and  excellence  of  words, 

If  Country  calls,  put  in  the  Trumpet's  throat 

A  loud  and  stirring  and  a  warlike  note  ; 

And  let  there  follow  an  inspiring  blast, 

As  the  long  file  of  heroes  hurries  past ; 

Then  raise  th'  exultant  clamor  to  its  height, 

When  crowned  as  victors,  they  return  from  fight. 

Because  the  service  God  demands  of  men 

Is  not  an  intermittent  thing  of  now  and  then, 

Temples  of  permanence  we  rightly  raise, 

For  the  perpetual  purposes  of  praise, 

And  build  great  Organs,  in  whose  tubes  of  sound, 

Sleeping  or  waking,  ye  are  always  found. 

Awake  !  prepare  Te  Deums  !  now  awake  ! 

Wave  your  great  wrings  till  all  the  building  shake  ! 

Rend  the  low  roof,  and  rend  the  vault  of  heaven, 

Bearing  the  rapture  of  a  soul  forgiven  ! 

Voice — Air  of  Expiration,  Its   Transmutations. 

Wonderful  instrument,  but  not  so  choice 
As  is  the  Organ  of  the  HUMAN  VOICE. 


54  THE    MICROCOSM. 

What  compact  proof  of  Heavenly  Power  and  Skill, 
When  simplest  means  sublimest  ends  fulfill  ! 
That  two-stringed  Lyre — quick  strung  to  every  note. 
Placed  at  the  windy  entrance  of  the  throat, 
With  a  divine  economy  of  room, 
•  So  placed  it  might  the  smallest  space  consume, 
There  where  the  aerial  currents  come  and  go, 
To  feed  the  vital  fires  that  burn  below, 
And  with  a  quickening  purifying  force, 
The  blood  to  freshen  in  its  onward  course — 
Taking  the  waste,  effete  and  useless  breath, 
Charged  with  the  very  element  of  death, 
Converts  it  into  music,  glorious  shapes 
Of  power  and  beauty,  ere  that  breath  escapes. 
A  transformation  marvelous  and  strange, 
Unequaled,  in  the  Alchemy  of  change  ; 
Harmonious  forces  working  to  condense 
The  blazing  jewels  of  intelligence  ; 
Diamonds  more  rich  than  proudest  monarchs  wear, 
Formed  from  the  gaseous  carbon  of  the  air  ; 
Th'  imperial  currency  of  human  wit, 
Image  and  superscription  stamped  on  it, 
Coined  from  the  atmosphere — th'  exhaustless  mine 
Of  golden  treasures  magical  and  fine — 


THE    MICROCOSM.  55 

Chief  circulating  medium  of  thought, 

And  common  mintage  by  which  truth  is  bought, 

And  wisdom  in  its  infinite  supply, 

Stored  in  th'  invisible  market  of  the  sky  I, 

Speech,  Accountable  Self-recording — Mathematical  Problem. 

O  Heart  and  Mouth,  in  strictest  wedlock  bound, 
Whence  spring  th'  immortal  births  of  soul  and  sound  ! 
Winged  for  far  flight,  your  moral  offspring  sweep 
The  airy  fields  of  the  cerulean  deep, 
Up  to  the  awful  place,  where  Judgment  waits 
Within  Eternity's  tremendous  gates. 

Philosophy  itself  may  serve  to  teach, 
No  power  so  fearful  as  the  Power  of  Speech. 
The  idle  word,  which  nothing  can  recall, 
Breaks  sacred  silence  thrilling  through  the  All  ; 
Yea,  like  a  pebble  dropped  into  the  sea, 
Ripples  the  ocean  of  immensity  ; 
An  oath  profane,  the  horror  of  a  lie, 
The  shuddering  Ether  bears  beyond  the  sky  : 
Sounding  through  height  and  depth,  its  way  it  takes 
To  distant  spheres,  and  endless  echoes  wakes  ; 
After  long  ages,  still  can  be  inferred, 
The  sense  arid  nature  of  each  uttered  word, 


5  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Declared  in  postured  particles,  because 
The  dance  of  atoms  is  by  rhythmic  laws  : 
For  that  another  cannot  be  the  same, 
God  calls  each  atom  by  a  different  name  ; 
Makes  these  an  alphabet,  by  which  to  spell 
Each  sentence  spoken,  and  each  syllable  ; 
Beyond  the  power  of  parchment,  or  of  pen, 
Expounding  all  the  utterances  of  men.* 

Its  Social  Uses — Tht    Word  made  Flesh. 

Most  genial  of  the  faculties  is  this, 
And  most  subservient  to  social  bliss  ; 
Fulfills  the  longing  as  no  other  can, 
When  man  would  manifest  himself  to  man  ; 

*  Mr.  Charles  Babbage — an  English  Mathematician  of  the  first  rank,  formerly 
Lucasian  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  Cambridge,  the  Chair  of  Newton,  famous 
also  as  the  inventor  of  a  Calculating  Machine,  built  at  a  cost  to  the  English 
Government  of  $85,000,  followed  by  another,  involving  a  still  heaver  outlay— in  a 
work  styled  "The  Ninth  Bridgewater  Treatise,"  published  in  1838,  filled  with 
much  original  and  quaint  speculation,  expresses  his  faith  in  the  startling  doctrine 
that  no  word  or  action  can  ever  be  eliminated  from  the  records  of  Nature,  but 
that  the  air  is  a  "vast  library,"  in  whose  pages  are  forever  written  all  that  man 
has  ever  said  or  woman  whispered,  inasmuch  as  the  aerial  pulses  which  seemed  to 
have  died  out  completely  might  yet  be  demonstrated  by  human  reason  to  exist. 
So  of  the  ocean.  A  being  possessed  of  unbounded  powers  of  mathematical  analysis 
might  trace  the  results  of  any  impulse  on  the  fluid,  or  read  back  the  history  of  the 
sea  in  its  own  billows.  And  so  too,  the  solid  frame  of  the  earth  may  serve  as  a 
stereotyped  record  both  of  the  transactions  and  the  proceedings  of  its  inhabitants; 
for  not  only  the  heavings  of  the  greatest  earthquakes,  but  the  little  local  tremors 
which  the  stamp  of  a  human  foot  may  produce,  may  all  be  said  to  have  left  their 
memorials  in  the  ground.  Heaven  and  earth  are  therefore  prepared  to  bear  wit- 
ness against  the  transgressor  on  the  Day  of  Judgment.  Terrible  thoughts  these,, 
but  what  if  they  are  true  ? 


THE    MICROCOSM.  57 

The  isolated  soul  shut  up  no  more 

Walks  freely  forth  as  through  an  open  door. 

Vainly  in  inarticulate  dumb  show, 
Had  Nature  strove  to  teach  man  here  below  ; 
When  finding  that  intended  to  reveal, 
Served  but  the  more  His  presence  to  conceal, 
God  put  aside  the  Vesture  of  the  Skies, 
And  walked  and  talked  with  men  in  Human  Guise  : 
Th'  apocalyptic  Word  made  Flesh,  made  thus 
Communicated  Godhead — GOD  WITH  Us. 

A  rticulation — Nose — Mouth — Smell —  Taste. 

Behold  how  man,  the  polyglot,  employs 
Th'  uncompounded  elemental  noise  ! 
Makes  endless  permutations,  mixes  breath 
For  nice  intonings  of  each  shibboleth  ! 
Up  from  the  Throat,  one  little  step,  we  reach 
The  cunning  moulds  and  matrices  of  speech  ; 
Formless  and  void  the  vocal  chaos  flows, 
Shaped  into  Language  by  the  Mouth  and  Nose  ; 
Mellifluous  modulations  taking  place, 
In  scented  caverns  of  the  hollow  face  ; 
Sweet  mobile  Lips,  Teeth,  Palate,  flavorous  Tongue, 
Making  intelligible  the  speaking  Lung  ; 


THE    MICROCOSM. 

Aiders  of  Speech,  but  then  the  seats  as  well 
Of  the  two  senses  of  the  Taste  and  Smell. 

Smell — Odors,   Their  Subtlety  and  Imponderability. 

The  Nerves  of  Smell,  the  first  the  brain  to  leave. 
Combed  and  divided  through  a  bony  sieve,* 
They,  from  their  tresses  of  disheveled  hair, 
Shake  out  the  tangled  fragrance  of  the  air. 
Conversant  with  all  sweetness — Nature  brings 
Hither  the  soul  and  quintessence  of  things  ; 
Airy  solutions  of  the  finer  powers, 
Imponderable  properties  of  flowers  ; 
Th'  aroma  of  all  seasons  and  all  times, 
Kingdoms  of  nature,  continents  and  climes — 
Too  subtle  and  too  spiritual,  I  ween, 
These  for  analysis  however  keen. 
Daintiest  of  senses,  daintily  it  feeds 
On  thymy  pastures  of  the  sk)''ey  meads, 
Drinks  from  etherial  fountains,  whence  are  quaffed 
Delicious  lungfulls  at  one  mighty  draught, 
Cheering  the  breast,  and  sweetening  all  the  blood, 
Like  some  celestial  minister  of  good. 

The  ethmoid  bone  (from  rjdftoc;,  "a  sieve,"  and  ffdof,  "  form"). 


THE    MICROCOSM.  59 

Breath  of  Life,  Natural  and  Spiritual. 

God  breathed,  O  breath  with  heavenly  sweetness  rife  ! 
Into  man's  nostrils  first  the  breath  of  life. 
The  blissful  aura  vivified  the  whole, 
And  straightway  man  became  a  living  soul. 
Then  odorous  Eden  yet  more  odorous  grew, 
As  o'er  its  bowers,  th'  informing  Spirit  blew 
Another  inner  and  diviner  air, 
Moving  within  the  proper  atmosphere, 
That  shook  the  leaves  and  made  the  tree-tops  nod, 
A  mystic  wind  immediately  from  God, — 
Rushing  and  mighty  like  the  Holy  Ghost 
Poured  out  upon  the  day  of  Pentecost. 
Still  the  same  Spirit  where  it  lists  it  blows, 
We  know  not  whence  it  comes  nor  where  it  goes, 
But  souls  it  quickened  on  Creation's  morn, 
Now  dead  in  sin  to  a  new  life  are  born  : 
One  inspiration  of  immortal  breath 
Creates  a  life  beneath  the  ribs  of  death. 

Theopneusty. 

O  via  sacra,  O  thrice  blessed  door, 
Once  hallowed  with  Thy  presence,  hallow,  Lord  !  once 
more. 


60  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Inbreathe  Thyself,  my  Maker  !  fill  each  cell 

Of  my  deep  breast,  and  deign  with  me  to  dwell. 

Come,  my  Desire  !     Thou  theme  of  heavenly  tongues, 

Fulfill  the  want  and  hunger  of  the  lungs. 

Be  Thou  my  breath,  my  laughter,  my  delight, 

My  song  by  day,  my  murmured  dream  by  night. 

When  hope  dilates,  and  love  my  bosom  warms, 

Be  these  the  product  of  Thy  powerful  charms. 

If  grief  convulses,  be  it  grief  for  sin, 

Prompt  every  sigh  and  make  me  pure  within  ; 

Perfumed  by  Thee  "  make  every  breath  a  spice 

And  each  religious  act  a  sacrifice." 

Taste — Elimination  and  Waste — Nothing  Lost. 

We  eat  to  live  :    the  Gustatory  Sense 
(The  same  as  Smell,  but  with  a  difference) 
At  the  pleased  portal  of  the  hungry  throat, 
From  endless  sources,  neighboring  and  remote, 
Assembles  relishes,  and  daily  feeds 
On  these  to  satisfy  the  body's  needs. 
Each  moment,  lo  !   we  die  and  are  reborn  ;  * 
The  old  becomes  cadaverous  and  outworn  ; 


*  "  Occasio  enim  prseceps  est  propter  artis  materiam,  dico  autem  corpus,  quod 
continue  fluit  et  momento  temporis  transmutatur."— Galen. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  6 1 

Beyond  the  boundary  of  our  every  breath, 
Wide  yawns  the  open  sepulchre  of  death  ; 
Parts  of  our  living  selves  give  up  the  ghost  ; 
Corrupt,  corrupting,  use  and  function  lost, 
Benignant  Nature  with  victorious  force 
Effects  deliverance  from  the  loathed  corse 
And  body  of  this  death  ;   in  ceaseless  flow, 
Fun'ral  processions  of  dead  atoms  go, 
Thronging  life's  ways  and  outward  opening  gates, 
All  unattended,  where  no  mourner  waits. 
Because  the  quick  have  duties,  let  the  dead 
Bury  their  dead,  the  Lord  of  life  hath  said. 
No  fear  that  needful  ministry  or  rite 
Shall  then  be  wanting  when  they  pass  from  sight ; 
Sown  on  the  winds  or  swallowed  of  the  waves 
They  shall  not  fail  of  hospitable  graves. 
Dear  to  terrestial  and  celestial  powers, 
Through  every  moment  of  the  flying  hours, 
Earth,  careful  mother,  to  her  bosom  draws 
Each  reverent  particle  subject  to  her  laws  ; 
Dust  welcomes  dust,  and  all  the  happy  ground 
Rejoices  that  the  lost  again  is  found. 
Again  it  forms  a  portion  of  the  mould 
To  tread  the  circle  it  fulfilled  of  old. 


62  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Again  it  ministers  to  the  thirsty  root, 
Mounts  to  the  blossom  and  matures  the  fruit ; 
Eaten  again,  again  it  makes  a  part, 
Or  of  the  thinking  brain  or  feeling  heart. 

Human    Want  and  Divine  Supply. 

Because  we  ne'er  continue  in  one  stay — 
Our  flowing  lives  still  wash  their  banks  away  ; 
This  colliquation  of  unstable  flesh, 
Invades  the  old  and  scarcely  spares  the  fresh  ; 
The  new  formed  solid,  even,  oozes  through, 
"  Thaws  and  resolves  itself  into  a  dew  ; " 
And  all  is  flux,  and  out  ten  thousand  doors 
Our  manly  strength  perpetually  pours — 
We  Hunger  and  We  Thirst,  and  all  abroad 
We  see  spread  out  the  mighty  Feast  of  God. 
Abounding  plenty  equal  to  the  waste 
With  luscious  adaptations  to  the  taste  ; 
Viands  heaped  up  in  such  seductive  guise, 
Forestalling  pleasure  looks  with  sparkling  eyes 
The  golden  produce  of  the  garnered  fields, 
Whate'er  the  valley  or  the  mountain  yields, 
The  juicy  tops  of  Nature,  not  that  found 
In  the  dark  mineral  lumpish  underground. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  63 

By  intermediate  vegetative  toil, 

And  much  elaboration  of  the  soil, 

Lifted  in  air  and  glowing  in  the  sun, 

We  pluck  the  fruit  then  when  the  work  is  done. 

In  curious  quest  of  every  dainty  known, 

We  draw  from  every  month  and  every  zone. 

To  pile  our  boards,  the  canvas  is  unfurled 

Of  more  than  half  the  navies  of  the  world. 

Art  intervenes,  and  as  the  case  requires, 

Concocts  the  crude  with  culinary  fires  ; 

Goes  forth  in  nature  to  extend  her  range, 

And  serve  man's  love  of  novelty  and  change, 

By  findings  of  manipulative  skill, 

Testings  and  tastings,  mixings  at  her  will 

Of  all  the  kingdoms,  flavorings  of  the  same, 

And  seasonings  of  vegetable  flame. 

Imperious  Wants  !  obedient  to  whose  call, 

Armies  capitulate,  dynasties  fall : 

Howe'er  the  rulers  of  the  earth  combine, 

They  may  not  blink  the  fact  that  man  must  dine. 

It  might  seem  little  and  beneath  God's  care — 
A  punctual  ordering  of  man's  common  fare  ; 
Unwarranted,  extravagant,  absurd, 
To  think  our  Pater  Nosters  could  be  heard — 


64  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Did  we  not  know  that  round  our  every  meal 
Suns  wait  and  serve  and  mighty  planets  wheel. 

Lord's  Prayer — Hodiernal  Bread — Hygienic  Wisdom. 

Father  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name — 
Tis  on  Thy  fatherhood  we  build  our  claim — 
Stoop  to  our  needs,  we  cannot  else  be  fed, 
Give  us  this  day,  as  erst,  our  daily  bread. 
Preserve  us  from  perversion  and  abuse, 
Turning  Thy  bounties  from  their  proper  use  ; 
From  gluttony  and  criminal  excess, 
Making  enough  our  rule,  nor  more  nor  less. 
Instruct  us  how  to  choose,  lest  that  we  sin 
Against  the  body's  health,  the  powers  within, 
Awful  economies  and  sacred  laws, 
Of  half  our  miseries  the  dreadful  cause. 
May  we  live  innocent  as  at  the  first, 
Using  safe  beverages  to  quench  our  thirst, 
Our  common  drink  be  water  from  the  well, 
Not  brewed  enchantments  of  the  fires  of  hell, 
Not  tasting  unblest  cups,  by  Thee  unblest, 
But  where  Satanic  benedictions  rest, 
Cursing  and  killing,  maddening  the  brain — 
Brief  joy  succeeded  by  eternal  pain. 


THE    MICROCOSM.  65 

Ingestion — Digestion — Assimilation. 

Be  in  our  Mouths  to  sanctify  our  Food  ; 
Begin  the  process  changing  it  to  Blood. 
We  dare  not  call  that  common  and  unclean 
Which  Thou  hast  cleansed — nor  count  that  longer  mean 
So  honored  by  assimilations  grand, 
And  exaltations  of  Thine  own  right  hand, 
As  through  the  channels  of  the  body  rolled, 
Th'  ingested  Morsel  comes  to  be  ensouled. 
Wherefore  be  present,  every  step  attend 
Of  its  miraculous  progress  to  the  end. 
During  the  perilous  passage  of  the  strait, 
O  keep  fast  shut  the  Laryngeal  Gate  : 
Adown  the  Throat  while  that  it  gently  glides, 
And  in  the  Stomach's  secret  chamber  hides, 
Be  there  to  entertain  th'  expected  guest, 
And  to  the  welcome  give  a  keener  zest. 
Make  the  couch  ready  :   and  mid  veiling  gloom, 
And  holy  privacy  as  in  a  womb, 
Induct  into  the  mysteries  of  the  place  . 
Rain  down  celestial  influence  and  grace 
Upon  the  nascent  neophyte  ;    prepare 
The  lavers  of  regeneration  ;    where 
5 


66  THE   MICROCOSM. 

By  wondrous  saturations*  for  a  time, 

And  fresh  baptisms  of  the  new-born  Chyme 

A  part  all  purified,  from  soil  purged  clear, 

Made  meet  and  worthy  of  a  higher  sphere, 

Enters  the  veins  and  mingles  with  the  blood  ; 

The  rest  a  stained  probationary  flood, 

Passing  the  Gate  Pyloric  waits  awhile, 

Its  transformation  into  purer  Chyle. 

Prosper  and  bless  and  let  the  work  proceed, 

Each  faithful  function  equal  to  the  need  ; 

Teach  the  strict  Lacteals,  duly  this  to  guide 

Into  the  narrow  way  from  out  the  wide, 

Where  freed  from  feculence  all  white  and  clean, 

And  trained,  through  mazes  of  the  Glands  between, 

For  saintly  fellowship  and  spousals  sweet 

With  the  dear  Lymph,  as  they  together  meet 

Within  the  Duct  Thoracic,  mount  to  gain 

The  level  of  the  pierced  Subclavian  Vein  — 

Tempering  the  mass,  to  form  a  fluid  part 

Of  that  humanity  which  fills  the  Heart. 


*The  Gastric  Juice,  like  the  saliva,  is  not  secreted  in  considerable  quantity  (Dr. 
Beaumont  says  not  at  all)  except  under  the  stimulus  of  recently  ingested  food.  It 
is  estimated  that  the  average  total  quantity  secreted  in  a  man  of  medium  size  in  24 
hours  is  14  pounds,  equal  to  nearly  two  gallons.  This  quantity  would  be  altogether 
incredible,  were  it  not,  that  as  soon  as  it  has  dissolved  its  quota  of  food,  it  is 
immediately  re-absorbed  and  agains  enters  into  the  circulation,  together  with  the 
alimentary  substances  which  it  holds  in  solution.—  Dalton. 


THE   MICROCOSM.  67 

Heart — Circulation — Nutrition — Blood  Exhilarations, 

Make  room,  my  HEART  !  *  that  pour'st  thyself  abroad, 
Deep,  central,  awful  mystery  of  God  ! 
Lord  of  my  bosom  !   wonder  of  the  breast  ! 
41  Welcome  the  coming,  speed  the  parting  guest :  " 
The  young  white  blood,  commingled  with  the  old — 
Purple,  impure,  effete  in  part,  and  cold- 
Give  needful  furtherance  through  the  Lungs,  to  where 
It  meets  the  fiery  spirits  of  the  air — 
In  friendly  barter  with  the  growing  plants 
Exchanging  what  they  need  for  what  it  wants  ; 
For  dingy  carbon,  refuse  of  the  frame, 
Receiving  back  the  principle  of  flame  ; 
While  mystic  cerebrations  downward  pour 
The  human  flood  to  humanize  yet  more, 
Making  it  moral,  with  all  passions  rife, 
Instinct  with  mortal  and  immortal  life  ; 


*  In  the  Fish,  the  Heart  is  a  single  organ,  having  one  Auricle  and  one  Ventri- 
cle. In  Reptiles,  it  has  two  Auricles  placed  side  by  side,  and  one  Ventricle.  In 
Quadrupeds  and  Man  it  is  double,  with  two  Auricles  and  two  Ventricles-  and 
there  are  two  distinct  Circulations — the  General  or  Systemic,  and  Pulmonary. 
The  Blood  on  the  Right  Side  of  the  Heart,  whether  found  in  the  Veins  or  Arter- 
ies, is  dark  or  venous ;  on  the  Left,  it  is  ruddy  and  bright  or  arterial.  The  first 
belongs  to  the  nocturnal  side  or  hemisphere  ;  the  latter  to  the  diurnal — the  sun 
having  its  rising  in  the  capillaries  of  the  lungs,  and  its  setting  in  those  of  the 
general  system — where  the  blood  loses  for  the  time  its  auroral  bloom  and  splendor, 
and  becomes  dark,  half  devitalized  and  charged  with  deadly  poison,  until  having 
completed  its  circuit,  its  pristine  glitter  and  beauty  are  once  more  restored,  as  it 


68  THE  MICROCOSM. 

Transfigured  thus,  thus  raised  and  glorified, 

Complete  the  circle  on  the  other  side, 

Where  Auricle  and  Ventricle  with  power 

Repeat  their  grasp  five  thousand  times  an  hour ; 

Closing  unresting  hands  that  never  tire 

On  the  one  passionate  object  of  desire  ; 

And  through  each  moment  of  the  night  and  day 

A  traveling  joy  to  every  part  convey  ; 

Filling  each  cell  of  all  the  Organs  up, 

As  wine  is  poured  into  a  jeweled  cup, 

With  the  Falernian  of  the  grapes  of  Heaven, 

The  living  Blood  miraculously  given — 

Endued  with  plenteous  power  by  which  it  can 

Rebuild  the  complex  of  the  perfect  man  ; 

To  every  organ  like  to  like  impart, 

Distribute  brain  to  brain  and  heart  to  heart  ; 


reappears  on  the  horizon  of  the  lungs.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  Blood  moves 
is  very  great.  Even  in  Arteries  of  the  minutest  size  it  is  so  rapid  that  the  glob 
ules  cannot  be  distinguished  in  it  on  microscopic  examination.  It  is  slower  in  the 
Veins  than  in  the  Arteries,  in  the  proportion  of  two  to  three,  and  still  slower  in 
the  Capillaries.  Volkman  estimates  the  velocity  in  the  arteries  at  12  inches  per 
second  ;  in  veins  at  8  inches;  in  capillaries,  i-3oth  of  an  inch.  Experiments  have 
been  made  to  ascertain  the  time  it  takes  the  blood  to  pass  the  entire  round  of  the 
circulation.  Traces  of  a  solution  of  Ferrocyanide  of  Potassium  introduced  into  the 
right  jugular  vein  of  a  horse  appeared  at  the  left  in  twenty  to  twenty-five  sec- 
onds, but  this  is  not  decisive  of  the  rate  of  the  circulation,  only  of  the  diffusion. 
Results  swarm  with  every  heart-beat.  Life's  innumerable  wheels,  revolving  all 
at  once  in  every  organ,  make  that  beat  representative  of  a  life-time — a  century  of 
existence  being  no  more  than  a  calculable  number  of  repetitions  of  that  vital 
second. 


THE   MICROCOSM.  69 

Conquer  the  years,  the  wastes  of  time  repair ; 
Add  to  the  body,  make  the  fair  more  fair : 
Nor  potent  less  to  raise  to  loftiest  heights 
Of  sensuous  pleasures  and  divine  delights — 
Untied  to  fleshy  ministrations — fraught 
With  stimulant  to  Feeling  and  to  Thought, 
Our  Ganymede,  enlivening  with  full  bowl 
4t  The  feast  of  reason  and  the  flow  of  soul." 

Heart — Seat  of  the  Affections — Visceral  Modifications. 

Undoubted  Sovereign,  worthiest  to  reign, 
Sharer  of  empire  with  the  regal  Brain  ! 
(Like  omnipresent  in  the  realms  of  sense, 
Found  at  the  centre  and  circumference, 
As  if  by  multiplication,  every  part 
Possessed  a  sensory  and  beating  heart) 
By  virtue  of  thy  birthright  from  above 
Thine  all  the  high  prerogatives  of  LOVE. 
One  with  thyself,  Love's  ample  power  display, 
Assert  its  right  to  universal  sway  ! 
As  thou,  so  Love  is  many  and  yet  one, 
Its  royal  robes  of  soul  and  body  spun — 
Assorted  vestments,  filling  many  a  room, 
The  beauteous  product  of  the  living  loom, 


7°  THE   MICROCOSM. 

By  the  deft  fingers  of  the  feelings  wrought 
Plying  the  shuttle  with  the  helping  thought — 
The  several  organs,  to  their  nature  true, 
Giving  each  tunic  its  distinctive  hue, 
One  of  the  colors  of  refracted  light, 
Or  the  chaste  total  of  religious  white — 
Defining  Loves,  all  Family  Loves  that  bind, 
The  Love  of  Country,  Love  of  Human  Kind, 
The  Love  of  God  all  other  Loves  above, 
The  Love  of  Truth  and  Right,  the  Love  of  Love. 

Within,  what  gracious  sympathies  appeal  ! 
What  visceral  yearnings  do  not  mothers  feel  ! — 
The  conscious  vitals,  full  of  fond  alarms 
For  the  sweet  infant  folded  in  her  arms, 
And  melting  tendernesses,  that  impart 
Tears  to  the  eyes  but  laughter  to  the  heart. 

Woman — Sex — Unity  in  Difference. 

O  loving  Woman,  man's  fulfillment  sweet, 
Completing  him  not  otherwise  complete  ! 
How  void  and  useless  the  sad  remnant  left 
Were  he  of  her,  his  nobler  part  bereft ! 
Of  her  who  bears  the  sacred  name  of  Wife, 
The  joy  and  crown  and  glory  of  his  life, 


VENUS  DE  MEDICI 

BY 

Cleomenes,  the  Athenian. 
B.  C.  200—150. 


THE   MICROCOSM.  71 

The  Mother  of  his  Children,  whereby  he 

Shall  live  in  far  off  epochs  yet  to  be. 

Conjoined  but  not  confounded,  side  by  side 

Lying  so  closely  nothing  can  divide  ; 

A  dual  self,  a  plural  unit,  twain, 

Except  in  sex,  to  be  no  more  again  ; 

Except  in  Sex — for  sex  can  nought  efface, 

Fixed  as  the  granite  mountain  on  its  base — 

But  not  for  this  less  one,  away  to  take 

This  sweet  distinction  were  to  mar  not  make. 

Dearer  for  difference  in  this  respect, 

As  means  of  rounding  mutual  defect. 

Woman  and  Man  all  social  needs  include  ; 

Earth  filled  with  men  were  still  a  solitude. 

In  vain  the  birds  would  sing,  in  vain  rejoice, 

Without  the  music  of  her  sweeter  voice. 

In  vain  the  stars  would  shine,  'twere  dark  the  while 

Without  the  light  of  her  superior  smile. 

To  blot  from  earth's  vocabularies  one 

Of  all  her  names  were  to  blot  out  the  sun. 

Love  of  the  Sexes — Ends  Answered. 

O  wondrous  Hour,  supremest  hour  of  fate, 
When  first  the  Soul  discerns  its  proper  Mate, 


72  THE    MICROCOSM. 

By  inward  voices  known  as  its  elect — 

Distanced  by  love,  and  infinite  respect, 

Fairer  than  fairest,  shining  from  afar, 

Throned  in  the  heights,  a  bright  particular  star 

The  glory  of  the  firmament,  the  evening  sky 

Glad  with  the  lustre  of  her  beaming  eye. 

Young  Love,  First  Love,  Love,  haply,  at  First  Sight, 

Smites  likes  the  lightning,  dazzles  like  the  light ; 

Chance  meeting  eyes  shoot  forth  contagious  flame, 

Sending  the  hot  blood  wildly  through  the  frame. 

By  strange  enchantment  violently  strook, 

The  total  being  rushes  with  a  look  ; 

A  beauty  never  seen  before,  except  some  gleams 

Purpling  the  atmosphere  of  blissful  dreams, 

Wakens  rare  raptures  and  sensations  new, 

Both  soul  and  body  thrilling  through  and  through. 

Says  sage  Experience,  sighing  o'er  the  past, 
These  dear  illusions  will  not  always  last  ; 
For  beauty  fades  and  disappointment  clings 
To  the  reality  of  human  things. 
It  may  be  so — it  may  be,  lover's  sight 
Surveying  all  things  by  love's  purple  light, 
Sees  not  the  faults  possession  shall  disclose, 


THE    MICROCOSM.  73 

Nor  the  sharp  thorn  concealed  beneath  the  rose. 

But  if  thus  Nature  her  great  ends  attain 

The  pomps  of  fancy  dazzle  not  in  vain. 

The  pleasing  falsehood  of  perfection  flits, 

But  not  the  Love,  that  in  contentment  sits 

Among  the  Dear  Ones  of  its  happy  home, 

Blest  with  sweet  foretastes  of  the  heaven  to  come. 

Deciduous  charms  of  face  unmissed  depart, 

While  bloom  the  fadeless  beauties  of  the  heart  ; 

Inward  conformity,  and  gradual  growth 

Of  moral  likeness,  tightening  bonds  of  both, 

Perfect  the  marriage,  which  was  but  begun 

Upon  that  day  they  were  pronounced  one. 

True  Love — Spurious  L(rvc. 

True  Love  is  humble,  thereby  is  it  known, 
Girded  for  service,  seeking  not  its  own  ; 
Exalts  its  object,  timid  homage  pays, 
Vaunts  not  itself,  but  speaks  in  self-dispraise  : 
"Look  not  on  me  ,"  it  says,  "for    I  am  black, 
In  ihee  all  fullness  is,  in  me  all  lack; 
But  what  I  have  and  am  are  wholly  thine, 
Vast  were  the  grace  would'st  thou  give  thine  for  mine." 


74  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Let  Love  but  enter,  it  converts  the  churl, 
And  makes  the  miser  lavish  as  an  earl ; 
The  strict  walls  of  his  prison,  giving  way, 
Fall  outward  and  let  in  the  light  of  day  ; 
Released  from  base  captivity  to  pelf, 
He  upwards  soars  into  a  nobler  self  ; 
And  hands,  that  once  did  nought  but  clutch  and  hoard 
Now  emulate  the  bounty  of  the  Lord  ; 
Hold  up  a  mirror,  that  reflects  the  face 
Of  Him  whose  heart  is  love  and  man-ward  grace. 

O  how  unlike  to  this,  so  chaste,  refined, 
Magnanimous,  benevolent  and  kind, 
Is  that  base  thing,  defiling  and  defiled, 
Born  of  unbridled  lusts  and  passions  wild, 
Which  soon  of  all  the  virtues  rings  the  knell 
And  sends  its  subjects  headlong  down  to  hell ! 
The  hidden  canker  of  a  vicious  heart 
Spreads  mortal  sickness  to  the  farthest  part  ; 
Th'  infected  body  rots  from  day  to  day 
Till  death  contemptuous  calls  the  soul  away, 
To  its  own  place  its  sentence  to  fulfill, 
"Let  him  that  filthy  is  be  filthy  still." 


<q    x-v 
PH    o 


THE   MICROCOSM.  75 

Charity — Physician — Opiferque  per  Orbem  Dicor* 

O  ye,  devoted  to  the  Healing  Art, 
By  solemn  consecration,  set  apart 
To  be  the  ministers  of  God  above 
In  the  sublime  Activities  of  Love  ; 
Whose  special  function  'tis  to  give  relief 
In  the  dark  hours  of  suffering  and  of  grief ; 
Between  the  living  and  the  dead  to  stand 
Where  fall  the  shafts  of  death  on  either  hand  ; 
Without  one  thought  of  flight,  to  still  maintain 
Perpetual  battle  with  the  Powers  of  Pain  ; 
With  a  fine  arrow  from  a  well  bent  bow 
Transfixing  fatally  the  murd'rous  foe  ; 
And  with  an  arm  made  powerful  to  save, 
Snatching  the  destined  victims  of  the  grave  ; — 
The  lofty  nature  of  your  office  such, 
You  cannot  magnify  the  same  too  much, 
Which  Tullyf  even,  eloquently  lauds, 
As  that  which  lifts  man  nearest  to  the  gods. 

*  This  motto  of  the  Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey  is  taken  from  the  fable  of 
Phoebus  and  Daphne  in  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  Lib.  I.,  v.  521-522.  Phcebus  is  re- 
presented as  saying : 

11  Inyentum  medicina  meum  est ;  opiferque  per  orbent 
Dicor,  et  herbarum  subjecta  potentia  nobis." 


Physic  is  my  discovery  ;  and  I 
Help-bearing  [One]  am  c 


am  called  throughout  the  world, 
To  us  subjected  is  the  power  of  herbs. 

t  Nulla  re  homines  ad  deos  propius  accedunt  quam  salutem  hominibus  dando. — 
Cicero. 


7<5  THE   MICROCOSM. 

Nosology — Auscultation  of  Heart  and  Lungs 

How  many  forms  of  sickness  man  befall, 
Sorrow  and  pain  the  common  lot  of  all ! 
Science  inquires,  and,  as  its  kinship  finds, 
Makes  classes,  orders,  families  and  kinds, 
Grouping  and  marshalling  diseases  so 
You  can  them  better  nominate  and  know. 
But  no  nosology  did  e'er  include 
The  total  of  the  mighty  multitude. 

Wise  to  interpret  each  prophetic  sign, 
To  pierce  the  veil  and  hidden  fates  divine, 
When  parents  ask,  with  grief  and  terror  wild, 
"  Canst  thou  not  save  my  darling,  save  my  child  ?  " 
You  skilled  to  catch,  while  listening  to  the  breath, 
The  distant  footsteps  of  approaching  death, 
May,  in  the  sighing  of  the  suffering  lung 
And  in  its  stillness,  hear  alike  a  tongue 
That  syllables  oracular  reply  : 
"  Impossible,  'tis  fixed,  your  child  must  die." 
Response  more  dread  not  Delphic  'prophetess 
E'er  shuddered  from  her  murmurous  recess. 

With  rush  of  countless  chariots,  palpitates 
Life's  great  metropolis  through  all  her  gates  ; 


THE    MICROCOSM.  77 

Their  crimson  wheels  with  a  perpetual  sound, 
Coming  and  going  in  their  endless  round, 
Are  heard  tumultuous  as  they  hurrying  throng 
Th'  Appian  or  Flaminian  ways  along  : 
'Tis  yours  to  know  next  hour  all  this  will  fail, 
And  death  and  silence  everywhere  prevail. 

Physicians  Character  and  Aims — Science  Progressive. 

O  it  is  well,  that  ye  have  hearts  to  feel, 
And  ears  not  deaf  to  pity's  soft  appeal, 
Putting  no  difference  'twixt  rich  and  poor, 
Plying  with  equal  zeal  the  means  of  cure, 
Not  deeming  it  becoming  to  regard 
Color  or  rank  or  person  or  reward. 
The  man  of  impure  life  and  sordid  aims, 
He  smuts  his  office  and  his  calling  shames  ; 
Him  you  disown  and  place  him  under  ban 
As  nothing  better  than  a  charlatan. 
Believing  needless  ignorance  a  crime, 
You  strive  to  reach  the  summit  of  your  time  ; 
To  old  age  learning  up  from  early  youth 
Your  life  one  long  apprenticeship  to  truth. 
Wisely  suspicious  sometimes  of  the  new, 
Ye  give  alert  acceptance  to  the  true  : 


78  THE    MICROCOSM. 

Even  though  it  make  old  science  obsolete, 
It  with  a  thousand  welcomes  still  you  greet. 
"  Knowledge  is  power,"  and  here  'tis  power  to  save, 
A  power  like  God's  to  rescue  from  the  grave. 
Each  Year  adds  something — many  things  ye  know 
Your  sires  knew  not  a  Hundred  Years  ago. 
Art  grown  to  more,  your  sons  will  higher  climb, 
And  make  the  Coming  Centuries  sublime  ; 
Till  Christ's  Millennial  Kingdom  shall  begin, 
And  put  an  end  to  sickness  and  to  sin. 
Heights  of  the  Future  !  breezy  with  the  breath 
Of  vernal  quickening  to  the  fields  of  Death, 
In  the  far  distance  of  the  long  before, 
We  think  we  see  your  misty  summits  soar  ; 
Though  scarce  distinguished  from  the  mingling  skies, 
How  glad  the  sight  to  our  believing  eyes  ! 

Spiritual  Maladies — Christ  the  Great  Physician. 

Ah  !  there  are  maladies  beyond  your  skill  ; 
You  cannot  cure  depravity  of  will ; 
You  cannot  mend  a  moral  nature  flawed, 
Convert  a  mind  at  enmity  with  God  ; 
You  cannot  terminate  the  inward  strife, 
Restore  the  broken  harmony  of  life  ; 


HOTO.    DR.    E.    ALBERT. 


Prof.   Theodor  Billroth,    M.    D. 

and  his 
Clinical  Assistants,  Vienna 


THE     MICROCOSM.  79 

With  all  th'  armentarium  of  Art 
Restrain  the  outflow  of  an  evil  heart  ; 
Cleanse  by  detergent  washings  of  the  skin 
Th'  immedicable  leprosy  of  sin  ; 
Remove  the  lunacy  that  chooses  death, 
And  imprecates  destruction  with  each  breath. 
When  came  the  Great  Physician  of  the  Skies, 
To  find  a  remedy  that  should  suffice, 
Knowing  'twas  not  in  mineral  or  wood, 
He  sought  it  in  a  Pharmacy  of  Blood  ; 
And  since  none  other  but  His  own  was  pure, 
He  transfused  that  to  consummate  the  cure. 
Man  curing  when  past  cure — content  to  give 
Himself  to  die  to  make  His  patient  live. 

Death — Immortality. 

Death  spreads,  no  more — a  black  and  wrathful  cloud 
The  smiling  infinite  of  heaven  to  shroud — 
A  harmless  mist,  instead,  divinely  bright 
With  dewy  splendors  of  the  morning  light 
That  scarcely  serves  th'  eternal  world  to  hide, 
Where  loved  ones  gone  before  in  bliss  abide. 


WO  RKS 


OF 


ABRAHAM   COLES,  M.D.,  LL.D, 


REVIEWED    BY 


EMINENT    CRITICS 


WORKS  OF  ABRAHAM  COLES.  M.D.,  LL.D. 


LATIN  HYMNS,  in  Four  Parts,  viz.: 

I.     DIES  IR^E,  in  Thirteen  Original  Versions.     Sixth 

edition.     (1892.) 
II.     STABAT  MATER  (Dolorosa).     Third  edition. 

III.  STABAT  MATER  (Speciosa).     Second  edition. 

IV.  OLD  GEMS  IN  NEW  SETTINGS.     Third  edition. 

All  bound  together,  with  biographical  and  critical 
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Delaroche;  Raphael's  "  Madonna  di  San  Sisto,"  the  gem 
of  the  Dresden  gallery;  "Ecstasy  and  Praver,"  by  Ch. 
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THE  MICROCOSM  AND  OTHER  POEMS. 

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National  Lyrics,  and  Hymns  for  Children.  Beautifully 
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THE  LIFE  AND  TEACHINGS  OF  OUR  LORD. 
In  Verse. 

Being  a  complete,  harmonized  exposition  of  the  four 
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Carlo  Dolce;  "The  First  Death,"  by  Adrian  V.  Werff  ; 
"The  Annunciation,"  by  Prof.  E.  Deger;  "  The  Visita- 
tion," by  Bida;  "Golgotha,"  by  J.  L.  Gerome;  "La 
Notte,"  by  Correggio;  "The  Presentation  in  the  Tem- 
ple," by  W.  T.  C.  Dobson;  "The  Magi  Going  to  Bethle- 
hem," by  J.  Portaels;  "The  Flight  into  Egypt,"  by 
Dorothea  Lister;  "The  Massacre  of  the  Innocents,"  by 
Guido;  "The  Shadow  of  the  Cross,"  by  Phil.  R.  Morris; 
"Nazareth,"  by  W.  T.  C.  Dobson;  "The  Good  Shep- 
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Temple,"  by  W.  Holman  Hunt;  "The  Voice  in  the 
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MAN,   THE   MICROCOSM;    AND    THE    COSMOS. 
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CRITICS   AND    CRITICISMS. 


CRITICS   AND   CRITICISMS. 

Richard  Grant  White  (1821-1885),  in  "The  Albion": 

"We  commend  the  volume,  'Dies  Irse,  in  Thirteen  Original  Ver- 
sions,' as  one  of  great  interest;  and  an  admirable  tribute  from 
American  scholarship  and  poetic  taste  to  the  supreme  nobility  of  the 
original  poem.  Dr.  Coles  has  shown  a  fine  appreciation  of  the 
spirit  and  rhythmic  movement  of  the  Hymn,  as  well  as  unusual 
command  of  language  and  rhyme;  and  we  much  doubt  whether  any 
translation  of  the  '  Dies  Irse,'  better  than  the  first  of  the  thirteen,  will 
ever  be  produced  in  English,  except  perhaps  by  himself.  .  .  .  As  to 
the  translation  of  the  Hymn,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  difficult  task 
that  could  be  undertaken.  To  render  'Faust'  or  the  'Songs  of 
Egmont'  into  fitting  English  numbers,  would  be  easy  in  com- 
parison." 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Irenaeus  Prime,  D.  D.  (1812-1885),  in 
the  "  New  York  Observer  ": 

"The  book  is  a  gem  both  typographically  and  intrinsically;  beau- 
tifully printed  at  the  '  Riverside  Press,'  in  the  loveliest  antique  type, 
on  tinted  paper,  with  liberal  margins,  embellished  with  exquisite 
photographs  of  the  great  masterpieces  of  Christian  art,  and  withal 
elegantly  and  solidly  bound  in  Matthew's  best  style,  a  gentleman- 
like book,  suggestive  of  Christmas  and  the  centre-table;  and  its 
•contents  worthy  of  their  dainty  envelope,  amply  entitling  it  as  well 
to  a  place  on  the  shelves  of  the  scholar The  first  two  of  the 


thirteen  versions  of  the  '  Dies  Irae'  appeared  in  the  '  Newark  Daily 
Advertiser'  as  long  ago  as  1847.  They  were  extensively  copied  by 
the  press,  and  warmly  commended— particularly  by  the  Rev.  Drs. 
James  W.  Alexander  and  W.  R.  Williams,  scholars  whose  critical 
acumen  and  literary  ability  are  universally  recognized — as  being; 
the  best  of  the  English  versions  in  double  rhyme;  and  examples  of 
singular  success  in  a  difficult  undertaking,  in  which  many,  and  of 
eminent  name,  had  been  competitors.  The  eleven  other  versions 
are  worthy  companions  of  those  which  have  received  such  eminent 
endorsement.  Indeed,  we  are  not  sure  but  that  the  last,  which  is- 
in  the  same  measure  as  Crashaw's,  but  in  our  judgment  far  superior,, 
will  please  the  general  taste  most  of  all." 

William   Cullen  Bryant  (1794-1878),  in  the  New  York 
"Evening   Post": 

"  There  are  few  versions  of  the  Hymn  which  will  b^ar  to  be 
compared  with  these;  we  are  surprised  that  they  are  all  so  well 
done." 


James  Russell  Lowell  (1819-1891),  in  "  The   Atlantic 
Monthly": 

"  Dr.  Coles  has  made,  we  think,  the  most  successful  attempt  at 

an  English  translation  of  the  Hymn  that  we  have  ever  seen 

He  has  done  so  well  that  we  hope  he  will  try  his  hand  on  some  of 
the  other  Latin  Hymns.  By  rendering  them  in  their  own  metres, 
and  with  so  large  a  transfusion  of  their  spirit  as  characterizes  his 
present  attempt,  he  will  be  doing  a  real  service  to  the  lovers  of 
that  kind  of  religious  poetry  in  which  neither  the  religion  nor 
the  poetry  is  left  out.  He  has  shown  that  he  knows  the  worth 
of  faithfulness." 


"  Christian  (Quarterly)  Review  :" 

"Of  Dr.  Coles'  remarkable  success  as  respects  these  particulars 
{namely,  faithfulness  and  variety),  no  one  competent  to  judge  can 
•doubt.  .  .  .  For  all  that  enters  into  a  good  translation,  fidelity  to 
the  sense  of  the  original,  uniform  conformity  to  its  tenses,  preser- 
vation of  its  metrical  form  without  awkwardly  inverting,  inele- 
gantly abbreviating,  or  violently  straining  the  sense  of  the  words, 
and  the  reproduction  of  its  vital  spirit — for  all  these  qualities  Dr. 
Coles'  first  translation  stands,  we  believe,  not  only  unsurpassed, 
imt  unequalled  in  the  English  language." 

"The  Boston  Transcript"  says: 

"The  '  Dies  Irae'is  by  far  the  most  interesting  hymn  to  Protestants 
and  poets,  of  all  that  our  fathers  used  to  sing  or  hear  in  a  strange 
tongue  '  not  understanded  of  the  people;'  and  so  thoroughly  has  the 
translator  (Dr.  Coles)  entered  the  circle  of  the  old  song's  heat  and 
strength  that  he  has  been  carried  through  it  again  and  again,  and 
here  are  more  than  a  dozen  versions  of  the  same  Latin  words,  and 
an  historical  criticism  in  a  strong,  earnest  and  poetical  style  akin 
to  that  of  the  hymn  itself." 

Lady  Jane  Franklin,  wife  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  when 
in  this  country,  met  Dr.  Coles  at  the  residence  of  a 
mutual  friend;  similarity  of  tastes,  and  the  interest 
taken  by  Dr.  Coles  in  the  search  for  her  husband, 
ripened  the  acquaintanceship  into  that  of  friendship. 
From  her  letter  written  from  New  York,  October  22d, 
1860,  we  quote  the  following : 

*  DR.  ABRAHAM  COLES: 

"  DEA.R  SIR — I  cannot  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  thanking  you 


once  more  for  your  most  beautiful  little  book,  '  The  Dies  Irae,  ins 
Thirteen  Original  Versions,'  which  I  value  not  only  for  its  intrinsic: 
merit,  but  as  an  expression  of  your  very,  kind  feelings  towards  me... 
Believe  me,  gratefully  and  truly  yours." 

William  C.  Prime,  in  the  "Journal  of  Commerce": 

"Dr.  A.  Coles  has  long  been  known  to  the  literary  world  as 
specially  successful  in  the  translation  of  Latin  Hymns.  His  render- 
ings of  the  '  Dies  Irae '  are  familiar  to  many  readers.  He  has  now 
also  prepared  a  book  entitled  'Old  Gems  in  New  Settings,'  an  exquisite 
volume,  in  which  we  find  the  '  De  Contemptu  Mundi,'  the  '  Veni 
Sancte  Spiritus,  and  other  fine  old  favorites  skillfully  and  grace- 
fully translated.  The  grand  hymn  or  poem  of  Bernard  de  Clugny^ 
of  which  the  extracts  in  this  book  are  styled  '  Urbs  Ccelestis  Syon,^ 
is  rendered  in  a  style  very  nearly  resembling  the  original,  and 
gives  the  reader,  who  does  not  understand  Latin,  an  excellent  idea, 
of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  hymn  of  Bernard.  Besides 
these,  we  have  the  '  Stabat  Mater,'  with  a  complete  history  of  the 
noble  hymn,  and  a  very  fine  translation.  The  lovers  of  old  hymns 
owe  a  special  debt  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  Coles  for  the  good  taste  and 
the  thorough  appreciation  and  ability  which  he  brings  to  the  work 
of  placing  these  glorious  old  songs  within  reach  of  the  modern 
world.  We  could  wish  them  to  become  favorites  in  every  family,, 
and  they  will  so  become  in  spite  of  their  Latin  origin." 

The  Rev.  Philip  Schaff,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  in  "Hours  at 
Home": 

"There  are  about  eighty  German  translations  of  the  '  Stabat 
Mater'  and  several  English  translations.  But  very  few  of  the  latter 
strictly  preserve  the  original  metre.  The  English  double  rhyme 
rarely  expresses  the  melody  and  pathos  of  the  Latin.  Dr.  Abraham* 


Coles,  the  well-known  author  of  fourteen  translations  of  '  Dies  Irae/ 
has  probably  best  succeeded  in  a  faithful  rendering  of  the  '  Mater 
Dolorosa.'  *  *  *  The  admirable  English  version  of  the  '  Mater 
Dolorosa,'  which  carefully  preserves  the  measure  of  the  original, 
is  from  Dr.  Coles,  who  kindly  granted  us  permission  to  use  it." 

"The  Republican,"  Springfield,  Mass.: 

"Dr.  Abraham  Coles  won  fame,  and  sure  fame,  by  the  most 
poetic  and  truthful  translations  ever  given  of  that  great  mediaeval 
hymn,  the  'Dies  Irse.'" 

George  Ripley  (1802-1880),  in  the  "New  York  Tribune": 

"  United  with  a  rare  command  of  language  and  facility  of  versi- 
fication, this  is  the  secret  of  the  eminent  success  with  which  the 
translator  has  reproduced  the  solemn  litany  of  the  Middle  Ages  in 
such  a  variety  of  forms.  If  not  all  of  equal  excellence,  it  is  hard  to 
decide  as  to  their  respective  merits,  so  admirably  do  they  embody 
the  tone  and  sentiment  of  the  original  in  vigorous  and  impressive 
verse.  The  essays  which  precede  and  follow  the  Hymn,  exhibit  the 
learning  and  the  taste  of  the  translator  in  a  most  favorable  light, 
and  show  that  an  antiquary  and  a  poet  have  not  been  lost  in  the 
study  of  science  and  the  practice  of  a  laborious  profession.  In 
addition  to  the  thirteen  versions  of  '  Dies  Irae,'  the  volume  contains 
translations  of  the  '  Stabat  Mater,'  '  Urbs  Coelestis  Syon,'  '  Veni 
Creator  Spiritus,'  and  other  choice  mediaeval  hymns  which  have 
been  executed  with  equal  unction  and  felicity. 

"  We  have  also  a  poem  by  the  same  author,  entitled  '  The  Micro- 
cosm,'read  before  the  Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey  at  its  centenary 
anniversary.  It  is  an  ingenious  attempt  to  present  the  principles 
of  the  animal  economy  in  a  philosophical  poem,  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  Lucretius,  and  combining  scientific  analysis  with 


religious  sentiment.  In  ordinary  hands,  we  should  not  regard  this 
as  a  happy,  nor  a  safe  experiment,  but  the  dexterity  with  which  it 
has  been  managed  by  Dr.  Coles,  illustrates  his  versatile  talent  as 
well  as  the  originality  of  his  conceptions. 

The  Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  President 
of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Coles  : 

"PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

"I  have  read  with  the  liveliest  delight  your  translations  of  the 
1  Latin  Hymns.'  I  wonder  how  you  could  have  drawn  out  thirteen 
of  the  '  Dies  Irae,'  all  in  the  spirit  and  manner  of  the  original,  and 
yet  so  different.  I  thought  each  the  best  as  I  read  it.  *  *  *  * 
I  have  read  enough  of  '  The  Microcosm '  to  see  that  it  is  thoroughly 
scientific." 

Richard  Stockton  Field,  LL.  D.,  (1803-1870),  in  1838 
Attorney  General  of  New  Jersey;  in  1862  United  States 
Senator;  in  1863  appointed  by  President  Lincoln  United 
States  District  Judge  for  the  District  of  New  Jersey;  at 
the  time  of  his  death  President  of  the  New  Jersey  His- 
torical Society: 

"  PRINCETON,  N.  J. 
"DR.  ABRAHAM  COLES: 

"MY  DEAR  SIR — With  the  original  'Dies  Irae'  and  'Stabat 
Mater'  I  have  long  been  familiar.  They  have  always  had  a  pecul- 
iar charm,  I  may  say  fascination,  about  them,  and  I  have  loved  to 
repeat  them.  And  now  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  they 
never  have  been,  and  I  doubt  if  they  ever  will  be,  as  well  translated 
into  English  verse  as  they  are  in  your  volume. 

"  Knowing  the  difficulty  of  the  task,   seeing  how  others  have 


failed.  I  am  indeed  astonished  at  your  success.  With  the  strictest 
fidelity,  your  translations  have  all  the  tenderness,  pathos  and 
rhythm  of  the  beautiful  and  touching  originals.  I  speak  more 
particularly,  of  the  first  of  the  '  Dies  Irae'  and  of  the  '  Stabat  Mater.' 
The  two  first  stanzas  of  the  latter  are  perfect. 

"Your  '  Microcosm,'  too,  is  a  noble  poem.  It  has  many  strik- 
ingly beautiful  passages.  It  evinces  science  and  culture,  and  poet- 
ical talent  of  high  order.  You  display  great  command  of  language, 
and  great  facility  of  versification.  Your  prose  also  is  easy  and 
graceful.  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  afforded  me  of  rendering 
this  feeble  tribute  to  their  merits.  Very  truly  yours." 

The  "  Newark  Daily  Advertiser  :" 

"  Dr.  Coles  has  supplied  a  want  and  done  a  graceful  work  in 
"The  Microcosm."  What  the  flower  or  babbling  stream  is  to  Words- 
worth, that  is  the  stranger,  more  complex,  and  more  beautiful  human 
frame  to  our  author.  In  its  organs,  its  powers,  its  aspirations,  and 
its  passions,  he  finds  ample  theme  for  song.  .  .  Everywhere  the 
rhythm  is  flowing  and  easy,  and  no  scholarly  man  can  peruse  the 
work  without  a  glance  of  wonder  at  the  varied  erudition,  classical, 
poetical,  and  learned,  that  crowds  its  pages,  and  overflows  in  foot- 
notes. And  through  the  whole  is  a  devout  religious  tone  and  a 
purity  of  purpose  worthy  of  all  praise." 

Edmund  C.  Stedman: 

"  Dr.  Coles'  researches,  made  so  lovingly  and  conscientiously  in 
his  special  field  of  poetical  scholarship,  have  given  him  a  distinct 
and  most  enviable  position  among  American  authors.  We  of  the 
younger  sort  learn  a  lesson  of  reverent  humility  from  the  pure 
enthusiasm  with  which  he  approaches  and  handles  his  noble  themes. 
The  '  tone'  of  all  his  works  is  perfect.  He  is  so  thoroughly  in  sym- 
pathy with  his  subjects  that  the  lay  reader  instantly  shares  his 


feeling;  and  there  is  a  kind  of  'white  light'  pervading  the  whole—*, 
prose  and  verse — which  at  any  time  tranquilizes  and  purifies  the 
mind." 

The  Rev.  Robert  Turnbull,  D.  D.: 

"I  have  finished  the  reading  of  *  The  Microcosm,'  which  ha* 
afforded  me  unmingled  delight.  It  is  really  a  remarkable  poem, 
and  has  passages  of  great  beauty  and  power.  It  cannot  fail  t<> 
secure  the  admiration  of  all  capable  of  appreciating  it.  Its  ease, 
its  exquisite  finish,  its  vivid  yet  delicate  and  powerful  imagery,  an4 
above  all  its  sublime  religious  interest,  entitle  it  to  a  very  high  placs 
in  our  literature." 

John  G.  Whittier: 

"  Dr.  Abraham  Coles  is  a  born  hymn  writer.  No  man  living  Ov 
dead  has  so  rendefed  the  text  and  the  spirit  of  ths  old  and  wonder, 
ful  Latin  Hymns.  *  *  *  His  'All  the  Days'  and  his  '  Ever  Witfc 
Thee'  are  immortal  songs.  It  is  better  to  have  written  them  thar» 
the  stateliest  of  epics.  *  *  *  The  idea  of  'The  Microcosm'  is 
novel  and  daring,  but  it  is  worked  out  with  great  skill  and  deli, 
cacy.  *  *  *  'The  Evangel'  is  a  work  of  piety  and  beauty.  The 
Proem  opens  with  strong,  vigorous  yet  melodious  verse.  I  see  no 
reason  why  the  Divine  Story  may  not  be  fitly  told  in  poetry." 

Rev.  S.  I.  Prime,  D.  D.,  in  "The  New  York  Observer": 

"  'The  Evangel  in  Verse,'  is  the  ripest  fruit  of  the  scholarship, 
taste  and  poetic  talent  of  one  of  our  accomplished  students  of  Eng- 
lish verse,  whose  translations  of  'Dies  Irae'  and  other  poems  have 
made  the  name  of  Dr.  Coles  familiar  in  the  literature  of  our  day. 
In  the  work  before  us  he  has  attempted  something  higher  and 
better  than  any  former  essay  of  his  skillful  pen.  He  has  rendered 


the  Gospel  story  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  into  verse,  with  copious 
notes,  giving  the  largest  amount  of  knowledge  from  critical 
authorities  to  justify  and  explain  the  readings  and  to  illuminate  the 
sacred  narrative.  .  .  .  He  excludes  everything  fictitious,  and  clings 
to  the  orthodox  view  of  the  character  and  mission  of  the  God-man. 
The  illustrations  are  a  complete  pictorial  anthology.  Thus  the 
poet,  critic,  commentator  and  artist  has  made  a  volume  that  will 
take  its  place  among  the  rare  productions  of  the  age,  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  genius,  taste,  and  fertile  scholarship  of  the  author." 


George  Ripley,  in  the  "New  York  Tribune"  : 

"  The  purpose  of  this  volume,  'The  Evangel,'  would  be  usually 
regarded  as  beyond  the  scope  of  poetic  composition.  It  aims  to  re- 
produce the  scenes  of  the  Gospel  History  in  verse,  with  a  strict  ad- 
herence to  the  sacred  narrative  and  no  greater  degree  of  imaginative 
coloring  than  would  serve  to  present  the  facts  in  the  most  brilliant 
and  impressive  light.  But  the  subject  is  one  with  which  the  author 
cherishes  so  profound  a  sympathy,  as  in  some  sense  to  justify  the 
boldness  of  the  attempt.  The  Oriental  cast  of  his  mind  allures  him 
to  the  haunts  of  sacred  song,  and  produces  a  vital  communion  with 
the  spirit  of  Hebrew  poetry.  Had  he  lived  in  the  days  of  Isaiah  or 
Jeremiah,  he  might  have  been  one  of  the  bards  who  sought  inspira- 
tion 'at  Siloa's  brook  that  flowed  fast  by  the  oracle  of  God.'  The 
present  work  is  not  the  first  fruits  of  his  religious  Muse,  but  he  is 
already  known  to  the  lovers  of  mediaeval  literature  by  his  admir- 
able translations  of  the  '  Dies  Iras.'  .  .  .  The  volume  is  brought  out 
in  a  style  of  unusual  elegance,  as  it  respects  the  essential  requisites 
of  paper,  print  and  binding,  while  the  copious  illustrations  will  at- 
tract notice  by  their  selection  of  the  most  celebrated  works  of  the 
best  masters." 


The  Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  upon  the 
publication  of  "  The  Evangel  :  " 

"College  of  New  Jersey, 

"PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

"You  are  giving  to  the  world  further  proof  that  we  did  ourselves 
honor  in  conferring  upon  you  some  years  ago  the  honorary  degree 
of  LL.  D.  *  *  *  *  I  spent  several  hours  last  Sabbath  in  read- 
ing your  poem,  and  relished  it  very  much." 

Daniel  Haines  (1801—1877),  in  l&43  elected  Governor 
of  New  Jersey,  and  re-elected  in  1847;  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court;  one  of  the  committee  on  the  reunion 
of  the  two  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  : 

"HAMBURG,  N.  J. 

"Mv  DEAR  SIR — I  can  scarcely  find  fitting  words  in  which  to 
express  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  kind  remembrance  of  me  in  the 
presentation  of  the  beautiful  copy  of  your  recent  work,  '  The 
Evangel  in  Verse.'  From  the  introduction,  the  proem  and  a  few 
chapters,  I  judge  it  to  be  a  work  of  rare  excellence.  The  metrical 
composition  is  pleasant  to  the  ear  and  eye,  and  is  remarkable  for  its 
literal  meaning.  To  me  the  greater  charm  is  its  clear  and  forcible 
expressions  of  evangelical  truth  and  sound  Christian  doctrine. 

"  It  is  the  most  succinct  and  complete  refutation  of  the  doctrine 
of  Darwin  and  Huxley  that  I  have  seen. 

"The  Christian  world  owes  you  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  your 
labor  and  research,  and  heartfelt  thanks  to  God  for  giving  you  the 
ability  to  produce  a  book  so  full  of  instruction,  and  affording  so 
much  gratification  to  the  cultivated  mind." 

The  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.  D.: 

"  '  The  Evangel  in  Verse '  is  a  feast  to  the  eye  and  ear  and  heart. 


The  careful  exegesis,  the  conscientious  loyalty  to  the  statements  of 
the  Holy  Story,  the  sympathetic  reproduction  of  a  remote  and 
Oriental  past,  the  sacred  insight  into  the  meaning  of  the  Peerless 
Career,  the  homageful  yet  manly,  unsuperstitious  reverence,  the 
rhythm  as  melodious  as  stately,  the  frequent  notes,  opulent  in  learn- 
ing and  doctrine  and  devotion,  the  illustrations  deftly  culled  from 
whatever  is  choice  in  ancient  and  modern  art,  these  are  some  of 
the  many  excellencies  which  give  to  'The  Evangel  in  Verse'  an  im- 
mortal beauty  and  worth,  adding  it  as  another  coronet  for  Him  on 
whose  brow  are  many  diadems." 

The  Rev.  Charles  Hodge,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  (1797-1878): 

"  I  admire  the  skill  which  'The  Evangel'  displays  in  investing 
with  rainbow  hues  the  simple  narrations  of  the  Gospels.  All,  how- 
ever, who  have  read  Dr.  Coles'  versions  of  the  '  Dies  Irae '  and  other 
Latin  Hymns  must  be  prepared  to  receive  any  new  productions 
from  his  pen  with  high  expectations.  In  these  days  when  even  the 
clerical  office  seems  in  many  cases  insufficient  to  protect  from  the 
present  fashionable  form  of  scepticism,  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to 
see  a  man  of  science  and  a  scholar  adhering  so  faithfully  to  the 
simple  Gospel." 

The  Hon.  Frederick  Theodore  Frelinghuysen  : 

"  United  States  Senate  Chamber, 

"WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

"  MY  DEAR  DOCTOR — Many  thanks  to  you  for  having  written 
'The  Evangel.'  It  is  admirably  conceived  and  executed.  While 
the  poem  impresses  the  truth,  it  will  lure  many  who  would  have 
remained  uninformed  to  the  valuable  instruction  contained  in  the 
Notes.  The  notes  on  Darwin,  The  Logos,  Herod,  and  the  miracle 
at  Ajalon,  are  excellent.  The  poem  brings  out  many  scriptural 


truths,  which  are  not  on  the  surface.  Let  me  say,  it  is  a  great  thing 
to  have  written  the  book — to  have  your  labor  associated  with  sal- 
vation." 

The  Rev.  Robert  Lowell,  D.D.,  in  the  "Church  Monthly": 

"  Dr  Coles  is  plainly  a  man  of  a  very  religious  heart  and  a  deeply 
reverential  mind.  .  .  .  Moreover  he  has  so  much  learning  in  his 
favorite  subject,  and  so  much  critical  instinct  and  experience,  that 
those  who  can  relish  honest  thinking,  and  tender  and  most  skillful 
and  true  deductions,  accept  his  teaching  and  suggestion  with  a  ready 
— sometimes  surprised — sympathy  and  confidence.  Add  to  all  this, 
that  he  has  the  sure  taste  of  a  poet,  and  the  warm  and  loving  earn- 
estness of  a  true  believer  in  the  redeeming  Son  of  God,  and  the 
catholic  spirit  of  one  who  knows  with  mind  and  heart  that  Christian- 
ity at  its  beginning  was  Christianity,  and  we  have  the  man  who  can 
write  such  books  as  earnest  Christian  people  will  welcome  and  be 
thankful  for.  .  .  .  In  this  new  book  he  proposes  'that  "  The  Evangel" 
shall  be  a  poetic  version,  and  verse  by  verse  paraphrase,  so  far  as  it 
goes,  of  the  Four  Gospels,  anciently  and  properly  regarded  as  one/ 
He  makes  an  exquisite  plea,  in  his  preface,  for  giving  leave  to  the 
glad  words  to  rejoice  at  the  Lord's  coming  in  the  Flesh,  for  which  all 

other  beings  and  things  show  their  happiness In  the  notes 

the  reader  will  find  (if  he  have  skill  for  such  things)  a  treasure-house, 
in  which  everything  is  worthy  of  its  place.  Where  he  has  offered 
new  interpretations,  or  set  forth  at  large  interpretations  not  gener- 
ally received  or  familiar,  he  modestly  asks  only  to  have  place  given 
him,  and  gives  every  one  free  leave  to  differ.  Everywhere  there  is 
the  largest  and  most  true-hearted  charity.  .  .  .  The  reader  cannot 
open  anywhere  without  finding  in  these  notes,  if  he  be  not  wiser  or 
more  learned  than  ourselves,  a  great  deal  that  he  never  saw,  or 
never  saw  so  well  set  forth  before." 


Stephen  Alexander,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Mechanics 
and  Astronomy  in  the  College  of  New  Jersey: 

"PRINCETON,  N.  J. 
"ABRAHAM  COLES,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.: 

"Mv  DEAR  SIR — 1  have  delayed  the  acknowledgement  of  the 
receipt  of  your  beautiful  '  Evangel'  until  I  could  make  some  return 
after  the  same  fashion.  Please  accept  my  sincere  thanks,  as  well 
as  my  congratulations  on  your  great  success.  I  am  always  inter- 
ested in  your  books,  and  always  learn  something  from  them. 

"With  this  I  send  a  copy  of  my  '  Statement  and  Exposition  of 
Certain  Harmonies  of  the  Solar  System,'  which  I  hope  may  reach 
you  safely.  Please  accept  the  same,  with  my  respects  and  regards. 
I  think  the  Notes  at  the  end  and  the  supplement  may  especially 
interest  you." 

Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  : 

"  There  is  a  kind  of  straightforward  simplicity  about  the  poetical 
paraphrases  which  reminds  one  of  the  homelier  but  still  always  inter- 
esting verses  which  John  Bunyan  sprinkles  like  drops  of  heavenly 
dew  along  the  pages  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  The  illustrations 
add  much  to  the  work,  in  the  way  of  ornament,  and  aid  to  the  imag- 
ination. One  among  them  is  of  terrible  power,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
such  as  it  would  be  hard  to  show  the  equal  of  in  the  work  of  any 
modern  artist.  I  mean  Holman  Hunt's  '  Scapegoat.'  There  is  a 
whole  theology  in  that  picture.  It  haunts  me  with  its  fearful  sug- 
gestiveness  like  a  nightmare.  I  find  '  The  Evangel '  an  impressive 
and  charming  book.  It  does  not  provoke  criticism — it  is  too  devout, 
too  sincere,  too  thoroughly  conscientious  in  its  elaboration  to  allow 
of  fault-finding  or  fault-hunting." 

William  Cullen  Bryant  : 
"  I  have  read  '  The  Evangel '  with  pleasure  and  satisfaction.    The 


versification  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  both  an  expansion  of  the  sense 
and  a  commentary.  The  thought  has  often  occurred  to  me  what  a 
world  of  meaning  is  there  wrapped  up,  and  that  meaning  is  admira- 
bly brought  out." 

Henry  Woodhull  Green,  LL.  D.,  (1802-1876),  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Jersey  from  1846 
till  1860,  when  he  became  Chancellor  : 

"TRENTON,  N.  J. 
"ABRAHAM  COLES,  LL.  D.,  Newark,  N.  J.: 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR — I  have  read  as  much  of  'The  Evangel'  during 
the  month  since  I  received  it  as  my  leisure  and  the  state  of  my 
health  have  permitted.  Of  its  literary  merits,  I  do  not  feel  myself 
qualified  to  judge,  but  its  perusal  has  given  me  great  pleasure,  I 
have  been  particularly  impressed  with  the  fidelity  with  which  you 
have  adhered  to  the  sacred  narrative,  unmarred  by  the  decorations 
of  heathen  mythology  or  papal  fable.  I  regard  that  as  no  ordinary 
merit.  I  can  well  understand  the  strong  temptation  under  which  a 
man  of  high  classic  culture  must,  in  a  work  of  this  kind,  constantly 
labor,  to  turn  from  the  stern  simplicity  of  the  sacred  narrative  to 
seek  embellishment  amid  the  flowers  of  classic  fiction.  To  have 
resisted  successfully  such  temptation,  I  regard  as  a  very  high  merit; 
and  I  congratulate  you  on  the  production  of  a  work,  which,  I  cannot 
doubt,  will  redound  to  your  own  honor  and  the  honor  of  OUR  STATE. 
With  high  regard,  I  am,  very  respectfully  yours." 

Charles  H.  Spurgeon,  writing  from  Westwood,  Beulah 
Hill,  Upper  Norwood,  speaks  of  "The  Evangel"  as  "a 
grand  volume,"  and  concludes  his  affectionate  letter 
with  the  words : 

"Peace  be  to  you,  and  every  blessing.     May  Scotch  Plains  be  a 


spot  wherein  Jesus  dwells  with  a  happy  household.      Yours   very 
heartily." 

The  Hon.  William  Earl  Dodge,  (1805-1883),  merchant 
and  philanthropist,  in  a  letter,  written  from  his  resi- 
dence in  New  York  City,  to  Dr.  Coles  : 

"Mrs.  Dodge  and  myself  have  very  much  enjoyed  'The  Evan- 
gel,' having  carefully  read  it.  Such  perfect  conformity  to  the  text 
and  spirit  of  the  sacred  narrative,  so  beautifully  transferred  to 
verse,  we  have  seldom  found." 

Thomas  Gordon  Hake,  M.  D.,  author  of  "Madeline, 
and  Other  Poems  and  Parables": 

"  12  Portland  place, 
"West  Kensington,  W.,  LONDON. 

"I  have  read  'The  Evangel,'  and  'The  Light  of  the  World,' 
•with  deep  interest,  and  with  assurance  that  the  learning  and  intelli- 
gence displayed  in  executing  so  difficult  a  work  will  secure  it  a 
lasting  place  in  our  joint  national  literature." 

The  "New  York  Observer": 

"The  skill  of  Dr.  Coles  as  an  artistic  poet,  his  reverent,  religious 
spirit,  and  the  exalted  flight  of  his  muse  in  the  regions  of  holy  medi- 
tation are  familiar  to  our  readers.  It  is,  therefore,  superfluous  for 
us  to  do  more  than  announce  a  new  and  elegant  volume  from  his 
pen — '  The  Microcosm  and  Other  Poems.'  It  is  rich  in  its  contents. 
'The  Microcosm'  is  an  essay  in  verse  on  the  science  of  the  human 
body  ;  it  is  literally  the  science  of  physiology  condensed  into  1,400 
lines.  The  many  occasional  poems  that  follow  are  the  efflorescence 
of  a  mind  sensitive  to  the  beautiful  and  rejoicing  in  the  true;  find- 


ing  God  in  everything,  and  delighting  to  trace  the  revelation  of  His 
love  in  all  the  works  of  His  hand.  Such  a  volume  is  not  to  be 
looked  at  for  a  moment  and  then  laid  aside.  Like  the  great  epics, 
it  is  a  book  for  all  time,  and  will  lose  none  of  its  interest  and  value 
by  the  lapse  of  years.  The  publishers  have  given  it  a  splendid  dress, 
and  the  illustrations  add  greatly  to  the  attractions  of  this  truly  ele- 
gant book." 

The  "New  York  Times": 

"  The  flavor  of  the  book,  'The  Microcosm  and  Other  Poems,'  is 
most  quaint,  suggesting,  on  the  religious  side,  George  Herbert,  and 
on  the  naturalistic  side,  the  elder  Darwin,  who,  in  'The  Botanic 
Garden,'  laid  the  seed  of  the  revolution  in  science,  accomplished  by 
the  patient  genius  of  his  grandson.  Some  of  the  hymns  for  children 
are  beautiful  in  their  simplicity  and  truth." 

"The  Critic": 

"  The  long  poem,  '  The  Microcosm,'  which  gives  its  name  to  the 
present  collection,  has  many  beautiful  and  stately  passages.  Among 
the  shorter  pieces  following  it,  is  to  be  found  some  of  the  best  devo- 
tional and  patriotic  poetry  that  has  been  written  in  this  country." 

John  Y.  Foster,  author  and  editor,  in  "Frank  Les- 
lie's Illustrated  Newspaper": 

"  In  this  exquisite  and  brilliantly  illustrated  volume,  the  scholarly 
author  has  gathered  up  various  children  of  his  pen  and  grouped 
them  in  family  unity.  '  The  Microcosm,'  which  forms  one-fifth  of  the 
volume  of  350  pages,  is  an  attempt  to  present,  in  poetical  form,  a 
compendium  of  the  science  of  the  human  body.  In  originality  of 
conception  and  felicity  of  expression,  it  has  not  been  approached  by 
any  work  of  our  best  modern  poets.  The  other  poems  are  all 
marked  by  the  highest  poetic  taste,  having  passages  of  great  beauty 
and  power." 


Hon.  Justin  McCarthy : 

"20  Cheyne  Garden,  Chelsea,  LONDON,  England. 
"  DEAR  DR.  COLES — I  am  surprised  to  see,  in  looking  through 
your  volume,  'The  Microcosm  and  Other  Poems,'  that  you  have  been 
able  to  add  three  more  versions  to  those  you  have  already  made  of 
that  wonderful  Latin  hymn,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all,  'Dies  Irae/ 
Certainly  it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  translate.  I  like  your  last 
version  especially." 

The  "  Examiner  and  Chronicle  ": 

"The  title-poem  in  this  exquisitely  printed  and  charmingly  illus- 
trated volume,  '  The  Microcosm  and  Other  Poems,'  has  been  for  some 
time  before  the  public,  and  has  received  generous  commendation 
for  the  tact  and  skill  evinced  in  handling  a  very  unpromising  theme. 
A  poetic  description,  minute  and  thorough  going  of  the  human  body 
was  a  serious  undertaking;  but  Dr.  Coles  delights  in  what  is  diffi- 
cult and  hazardous.  He  had  already  associated  his  name  forever 
with  the  mediaeval  Latin  hymn, '  Dies  Trae,'  by  publishing  no  less  than 
thirteen  distinct  versions  of  it.  In  the  volume  before  us  he  gives 
us  three  more  versions.  The  other  poems  will  not  detract  from  the 
author's  previous  reputation." 

Hon.  Horace  N.  Congar,  lawyer,  editor,  United  States 
Consul  at  Hong  Kong,  China,  under  President  Lincoln; 
and  Consul  at  Prague,  Bohemia,  under  President  Grant: 

"  United  States  Consulate, 

"  PRAGUE,  Bohemia. 

"There  is  one  thing,  my  dear  Doctor,  about  your  publications 
which  no  one  can  deny.  You  print  your  own  poetical  thoughts  and 
-conceptions.  They  are  not  copies  of  some  other  writer,  but  stand 


out  clear  and  distinct  with  your  own  diction  and  strength;  written 
for  the  scholarly  and  intelligent,  they  preserve  true  simplicity  with 
the  real  grandeur  of  their  conception." 

The  Rev.  William  Hague,  D.  D.  (1808-1887),  in  "Life 
Notes;  or  Fifty  Years'  Outlook": 

"The  (Newark)  'Advertiser'  yet  lives  and  thrives,  winning  to 
its  service  the  contributions  of  scholarly  writers,  among  whom  we 
have  noticed,  occasionally,  the  veteran  physician  and  poet,  Dr.. 
Abraham  Coles,  author  of  'The  Evangel'  with  its  immense  wealth 
of  critical  scholasticism;  and  the  tasteful  and  rhythmic  translator  of 
Latin  poetry  that  enriches  our  libraries,  for  instance,  in  the  artistic- 
ally wrought  edition  of  the  '  Dies  Irae.'" 

The  "Newark  Daily  Advertiser": 

1 '  The  Microcosm '  is  the  only  book  of  the  kind  in  the  language,, 
and  is  well  deserving  of  a  place  in  every  library,  and  might,  we 
think,  moreover,  be  introduced  with  advantage  into  all  schools  where 
physiology  is  taught  as  an  adjunct,  if  nothing  else,  to  stimulate  inter- 
est, and  relieve  the  dryness  of  ordinary  text  books.  In  lines  of 
flowing  and  easy  verse,  the  author  sets  forth  with  a  completeness 
certainly  remarkable,  and  with  great  power  and  beauty  the  incom- 
parable marvels  of  structure  and  function  of  the  human  body. 

"  This  poetic  mastery,  making  ductile  the  most  unpromising  ma- 
terials, has  had  its  latest  and  supreme  exemplification  in  the  com- 
pletion of  the  unique  work,  '  The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord,, 
in  Verse.'  '  The  Evangel,'  forming  the  first  part,  appeared  in  1874, 
'The  Light  of  the  World,'  forming  the  second  part  and  completing 
the  work,  is  now,  1884,  first  published.  *  *  * 

"  By  common  consent  the  story  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  as  told  by 
the  four  evangelists,  is  the  unmatched  masterpiece  of  literature* 


Its  literary  interest  is  hardly  inferior  to  its  religious.  It  is  pre-emi- 
nently classic.  The  most  fervid  encomiums  have  come  from  infidels 
and  the  great  literary  artists  of  the  world.  To  taboo  it,  therefore, 
.as  something  outside  of  literature,  betrays  ignorance  and  imbecility. 
Mr.  Edwin  Arnold  has  duly  celebrated  in  his  poem,  'The  Light  of 
Asia,' the  Buddhist  hero,  Prince  Siddartha,  and  has  had,  it  would 
seem,  readers  among  all  classes.  The  life  and  teachings  of  Him 
who  is  'The  Light  of  the  World,'  and  whose  fame  fills  the  ages, 
are  surely  not  less  worthy  of  regard  and  study  by  the  cultiva- 
tors of  literature.  The  author  has  striven,  it  would  seem,  to  make 
'his  book  a  veritable  cyclopaedia  of  religious  knowledge,  so  compre- 
hensive is  its  scope.  It  ranges  through  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New.  An  episode  in  the  first  part,  outlines  nearly  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  Jewish  people.  The  poetical  proem  and  the  note  ap- 
pended thereto  are  in  effective  antagonism  to  Darwinism  and  cur- 
rent evolution  theories.  An  elaborate  note  on  'The  Logos '  gives 
an  historical  summary  of  the  prevailing  creeds  and  christologies 
from  the  earliest  times. 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  is  a  book  deserving  of  a  place 
•beside  the  New  Testament  in  every  household,  and  cannot  fail  to 
t>e  found  a  valuable  help  to  every  reader  and  student  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures." 

The  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.D.: 

"PHILADELPHIA,-  Pa. 

"Mv  DEAR  DOCTOR  COLES — Most  happy  do  I  count  myself  in 
possessing  'The  Light  of  the  World.'  It  has  all  those  same  fine 
characteristics  which  so  richly  mark 'The  Evangel.'  It  must  be  a 
source  of  supreme  delight  to  the  accomplished  author  that  he  has 
Taeen  permitted  to  complete  a  work  so  lofty  in  design,  and  so  admir- 
able in  execution." 


Rev.  Alfred  Spencer  Patton,  D.  D.  (1825-1888),  author^ 
editor  of  "The  Baptist  Weekly,"  etc.: 

"  Our  good  and  gifted  friend,  Dr.  Abraham  Coles,  has  everjr 
reason  to  be  gratified  with  the  highly  complimentary  notices  by 
the  press,  of  his  last  work,  'The  Light  of  the  World,'  it  being  the 
second  volume  or  completion  of  his  life  of  Jesus,  as  told  by  the- 
evangelists." 

The  Hon.  Joseph  P.  Bradley,  LL.  D.,  one  of  the 
Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  : 

"WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  Dec.  14,  1884. 

"DEAR  DOCTOR — I  have  read  nearly  all  of  your  beautiful  book,, 
'The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord,  in  Verse,'  and  like  it  better- 
the  longer  I  read  it.  You  had  two  rocks  to  avoid:  on  one  side  pro- 
saic tameness,  which  might  be  incurred  by  too  rigid  an  adherence  to 
the  text;  on  the  other  rashness  in  attempting  (even  poetical)  changes 
of  consecrated  forms  of  expression — changes  which  no  English  or- 
American  ear  would  endure.  I  appreciate  the  difficulty  of  the  task,, 
and  think  you  have  performed  it  wonderfully  well." 


John  G.  Whittier : 

"AMESBURY,  Mass.,  January,  1885. 

"  'The  Light  of  the  World'  I  have  read  with  interest.  Thy 
poetical  version  of  the  wonderful  narrative  seems  to  be  conscien- 
tiously faithful  to  the  original,  while  at  the  same  time  it  success- 
fully interprets  some  passages  which  are  not  clear  to  the  ordinary- 
reader.  It  will  be  a  helpful  book  to  many,  who  will  realize,  for  the-- 
first  time,  the  true  meaning  and  significance  of  the  Lord's 
I  am,  with  high  respect  and  esteem,  thy  friend." 


The  Right  Honorable  John  Bright,  M.  P.,  England  : 

"  132  Picadilly,  LONDON,  April  30,  1885. 

"  DEAR  DR.  COLES — When  I  began  to  read  your  volume  on  'The 
Life  and  Teachings  of  Christ  in  Verse,'  I  thought  you  had  attempted 
to  gild  the  refined  gold,  and  would  fail — as  I  proceeded  in  my  read- 
ing that  idea  gradually  disappeared,  and  I  discovered  that  you  had 
brought  the  refined  gold  together  in  a  manner  convenient  and  useful 
and  deeply  interesting.  I  have  read  the  volume  with  all  its  notes, 
many  of  which  seem  to  me  of  great  value.  I  could  envy  you  the 
learning  and  the  industry  that  have  enabled  you  to  produce  this 
remarkable  work.  I  hope  it  may  have  many  readers  in  all  countries 
where  our  language  is  spoken." 


The  Rev.  Henry  Griggs  Weston,  D.  D.,  author  and 
editor,  President  of  the  Crozer  Theological  Seminary, 
Chester,  Pennsylvania : 

"  Your  work,  'The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord,' is  one  of 
the  gratifying  fruits  of  the  study  which  the  Gospels  have  received 
since  I  first  began  to  inquire  for  helps  to  their  understanding." 

The  Rev.  Horatius  Bonar,  D.  D.: 

"  10  Palmerston  Road,  Grange,  EDINBURGH. 

*  *  *  *  "I  am  struck  with  your  command  of  language,  and 
your  skill  in  clothing  the  simplicities  of  history  with  the  elegance  of 
poetry.  It  ('  The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord  in  Verse')  is  no 
ordinary  volume,  and  your  notes  are  of  a  very  high  order  indeed — 
admirably  written,  and  full  of  philosophical  thought  and  Scriptural 
research." 


The  Rev.  Alexander  McLaren,  D.  D.: 

"  MANCHESTER,  Eng.,  Nov.  3,  1885. 

"DEAR  SIR — I  congratulate  you  on  having  accomplished  with  such 
success  a  most  difficult  undertaking;  and  on  having  been  able  to 
present  the  inexhaustible  life  in  a  form  so  new  and  original.  I  do 
not  know  whether  I  have  been  most  struck  by  the  careful  and  fine 
exegetical  study,  or  the  graceful  versification  of  your  work.  I  trust 
it  ('  The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord  in  Verse')  may  be  use- 
ful, not  only  in  attracting  the  people,  which  George  Herbert  thought 
could  be  caught  with  a  song,  when  they  would  run  from  a  ser- 
mon, but  may  also  help  lovers  of  the  sermon  to  see  its  subject  in  a 
new  garb." 

Adele  M.  Fielde,  missionary  at  Swatow,  China  : 

"Those  whose  judgment  is  of  value  have  given  Dr.  Coles'  trans- 
lations of  the  Latin  hymns  such  high  praise,  that  words  of  commend- 
ation from  me  would  appear  presumptuous.  I  am  glad,  for  the 
world's  sake,  that  the  wonderful  Latin  hymns  were  written,  and  that 
Dr.  Coles  has  so  translated  them,  and  I  am  glad  for  my  own  sake 
that  I  have  them  to  read.  *  *  *  *  I  think  Dr.  Coles  has  done 
an  excellent  thing  for  us  in  his  '  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord.'  " 

Elizabeth  Clementine  Kinney,  author  and  poet,  wife 
of  Hon.  William  Burnet  Kinney;  and,  by  her  first 
husband,  Edmund  B.  Stedman,  the  mother  of  Edmund 
Clarence  Stedman,  the  distinguished  poet  and  critic  : 

"Dr.  Coles  long  ago  established  a  high  reputation  in  both  worlds, 
by  his  matchless  translations  of  that  famous  old  judgment  hymn, 
the  'Dies  Irse,'  and  of  mediaeval  hymns,  published  under  the  title  of 
'Old  Gems  in  New  Settings;'  also  by  his  unique  original  poem, 


"  The  Microcosm,'  which  has  glorified  by  immortal  verse  this  mortal 
body,  so  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made  that  every  part  harmonizes 
with  the  poet's  song.  In  'The  Evangel'  and  'The  Light  of  the 
World,'  already  noticed  by  'The  Observer,'  while  conscientiously 
adhering  to  the  sacred  text,  Dr.  Coles'  frequent  elaborate  notes  give 
freedom  to  some  original  suggestions  growing  out  of  the  author's 
fifty  years'  devout  study  of  the  Bible.  It  will  be  well  to  heed  any 
proposition  brought  forward  by  one  who  has  been  so  long  a  reverent 
student  as  to  have  become  a  profound  thinker,  and  thus  an  able 
teacher  of  the  divine  word.  Every  thought  or  idea  advanced  by 
Dr.  Coles  will,  doubtless,  on  thorough,  unprejudiced  investigation, 
be  found  supported  by  a  reasonable  interpretation  of  Scripture. 
Between  the  acts  of  this  sacred  drama  there  are  also  some  hymnal 
excursions,  which  show  the  height  and  depth,  the  color  and  light, 
the  melody  and  ecstasy,  of  the  true  Christian  poet.  Through  his 
many  works,  one  noble  aim  is  ever  apparent,  viz.:  to  'crown  Him 
Lord  of  all'  who  is  'the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith'  and  '  the 
giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift.'  Noticeable,  too,  through  all, 
is  progression,  in  respect  of  enlargement  by  study  and  thought; 
of  advancement  with  advancing  years,  keeping  pace  with  the  age 
in  increasing  light  so  far  as  it  develops  heavenly  truth,  and 
original  conception  through  truth." 

"The  Book  Buyer,"  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New 
York: 

"  'The  Hebrew  Psalms  in  English  Verse.'  By  Abraham  Coles, 
M.  D.,  LL.D.  Dr.  Coles  has  won  praise  from  some  of  the  most 
eminent  of  critics  for  his  translations  into  English  of  the  '  Dies 
Irse,'  the  characteristics  of  the  work  being  faithfulness  to  the  spirit 
of  the  original,  combined  with  a  command  of  rich  and  rythmic  Eng- 
lish. His  tastes  have  led  him  to  translate  the  great  Hebrew  classic 
into  English  verse,  a  task  of  unusual  difficulty  which  many  have 


undertaken,  but  in  which  few  have  attained  even  partial  success* 
Dr.  Coles's  work  will  attract  wide  attention  by  reason  of  its  lofty  reli- 
gious spirit,  its  admirable  reflection  of  the  incomparably  fine  flavor 
of  the  original,  its  dignified,  stately  diction  and  the  scholarly  care 
bestowed  upon  every  line.  The  book,  moreover,  has  an  additional 
value  in  the  prefatory  matter  which  includes  an  essay  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  Psalms,  a  detailed  account  of  the  French,  English  and 
Scotch  metrical  versions  of  the  Psalms  and  a  chapter  of  interesting 
notes,  critical,  historical  and  biographical.  An  admirable  steel 
portrait  of  Dr.  Coles  serves  as  a  frontispiece  to  the  book." 

Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.: 

"  DEAR  DR.  COLES — Your  volume  on  the  Psalms  is  a  noble  workr 
and  the  introduction  is  rich  and  sweet  as  a  honeycomb.  Two  Sab~ 
baths  ago  I  gave  out  from  my  pulpit  your  fine  hymn,  '  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  all  the  days,'  and  told  the  congregation  some  things  about  the 
author.  *  *  *  *  You  will  be  quite  at  home  up  among  heaven's- 
choir  of  psalmists  and  chosen  singers." 

The  "  New  York  Tribune  ": 

"  'A  New  Rendering  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms  into  English  Verse,, 
with  Notes,  Critical,  Historical  and  Biographical,  including  an 
Historical  Sketch  of  the  French,  English  and  Scotch  Metrical 
Versions,'  by  Dr.  Abraham  Coles.  Dr.  Coles'  name  on  the 
title-page  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  the  excellence  and  thorough- 
ness of  the  work  done.  Indeed,  Dr.  Coles  has  done  much  more 
than  produce  a  fresh,  vigorous  and  harmonious  version  of  the 
Psalms,  though  this  was  alone  well  worth  doing.  His  full  and  schol- 
arly notes  on  the  early  versions  of  Clement  Marot,  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins  and  others,  his  sketches  of  eminent  persons  connected  in> 
various  ways  with  particular  psalms,  his  literary  and  bibliographical 


information,  together  impart  a  value  and  interest  to  this  work 
which  should  insure  an  extensive  circulation  for  it.  Very  much  of 
the  historical  and  other  matter  thus  brought  within  the  reach  of  the 
public  is  inaccessible  to  such  as  have  not  means  of  access  to  public 
libraries,  and  there  is  certainly  no  Christian  household  in  the  coun- 
try which  would  not  find  both  pleasure  and  instruction  in  Dr. 
Coles'  compendious  and  altogether  unique  volume.  It  may  be 
added  that  in  his  version  of  the  Psalms  he  has  wisely  preserved  the 
rhythmical  swing  and  the  terse  language  which  distinguish  the  early 
renderings,  and  that  therefore  those  who  have  been  reared  on  the 
old  versions  need  not  fear  finding  their  favorites  changed  '  out  of 
knowledge.' " 

The  Rev.  Frederic  W.  Farrar,  D.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  Chap- 
lain in  Ordinary  to  the  Queen,  author  of  the  "  Life  of 
Christ,"  etc.,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Coles  : 

"  17,  Dean's  Yard,  WESTMINSTER,  S.  W. 

44  The  task  of  versifying  the  Psalms  was  too  much  even  for 
Milton,  but  you  have  attempted  it  with  seriousness  and  with  as 
much  success  as  seems  to  be  possible.  I  was  much  interested  in 
your  introduction." 

The  Rev.  A.  H.  Tuttle,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  First 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Wilkesbarre,  Pa.: 

"  'The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Our  Lord,  in  verse,' has  greatly 
aided  me  in  my  efforts  to  interpret  heavenly  things.  I  am  glad  you 
have  lived  to  complete  your  versification  of  the  Psalms.  I  am  now 
making  a  protracted  and  careful  study  of  the  old  'Hebrew  Hymn 
Book,  and  your  work  will  be  of  untold  help  to  me.  I  have  already 
read  my  favorite  psalms  as  you  sing  them.  They  are  rich  beyond 
expression." 


The  Rev.  Charles  S.  Robinson,  D.  D.; 

"I  have  read  many  of  your  really  excellent  versions  of  the 
Psalms.  It  seems  to  me  you  have  added  richly  to  our  available 
literature  in  that  direction.  I  have  been  specially  interested,  also, 
in  the  prefaced  notes.  Some  of  the  information  is  quite  new  to  me, 
and  the  comments  are  all  good  and  helpful." 

Hon.  George  Hay  Stuart,  the  eminent  philanthropist 
in  January,  1888,  wrote  from  Philadelphia  : 

"  'The  New  Rendering  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms  into  English 
Verse,'  I  prize  very  much.  It  is  exceedingly  good  and  very  suggest- 
ive. The  subject  matter  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  me.  I  have  been 
brought  up,  as  perhaps  you  know,  in  old  Rouse's  version  of  the 
Psalms,  but  never  held  the  view,  that  many  do,  that  nothing  else  can 
be  sung  in  the  praise  of  God.  Our  own  congregation,  up  to  recently, 
used  nothing  but  that  version.  Now  we  have  so  far  advanced  that 
we  sing,  also,  hymns  and  spiritual  songs.  *  *  *  *  The  United 
Presbyterian  Assembly  has  recently  adopted  a  new  version  of  the 
Psalms,  but  I  think  their  leading  men  ought  to  see  this  version." 

The  Rev.  D.  R.  Frazer,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  of  Newark,  N.  J.: 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  COLES — I  do  not  know  that  I  can  give  any  better 
expression  of  my  appreciation  of  your  last  work  than  to  say  that  my 
wife  and  I  sat  up  until  after  midnight,  reading  psalm  after  psalm 
with  very  great  delight.  The  versification  is  beautiful,  and  its  beauty 
intensifies  by  its  fidelity  to  the  common  version.  Hoping  the  book 
may  do  much  good,  in  making  manifest  the  beauties  of  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  portions  of  the  Word  of  God,  I  am,  with  great 
respect,  ever  sincerely  yours." 


Charles  M.  Davis,  Secretary  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Christian  Philosophy,  Superintendent  of  Public 
Schools,  Essex  county,  N.  J.,  etc.: 

"  DEAR  DR.  COLES — During  the  past  year  I  have  been  reading  the 
revised  version  of  the  Psalms,  in  connection  with  the  received. 
Your  translations  will  be  a  help  to  me,  as  I  do  not  understand 
Hebrew.  I  have  read  your  introduction  very  carefully,  and  find  it 
contains  especially  valuable  information,  as  do,  also,  your  occasional 
notes.  The  psalms  that  I  have  read  aloud  in  the  family  have  been 
greatly  enjoyed,  especially  the  icyth,  is6th  and  I37th.  We  are 
anticipating  much  pleasure  from  the  continuance  of  this  during  the 
winter  evenings." 

The  Rev.  A.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D.,  editor  of  "  The  Outlook 
and  Sabbath  Quarterly": 

"  I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  the  book,  not  only  in  the 
success  which  you  have  attained  in  versifying  the  Psalms,  but  in  the 
valuable  matter  embodied  in  the  introduction.  I  have  usually  found 
it  difficult  to  interest  myself  in  any  versification  of  the  Psalms, 
especially  in  the  early  efforts  by  Watts  and  others.  On  opening 
your  volume,  I  found  myself  inclined  to  read  in  detail,  rather  than  to 
examine  cursorily.  It  is  very  difficult  to  versify  Hebrew  poetry. 
The  success  you  have  attained  in  expressing  the  delicate  shades  of 
sentiment  commands  our  congratulations,  and  may  justly  give  you 
abundant  satisfaction." 

S.  W.  Kershaw,  F.  S.  A.,  author,  librarian  of  the 
Lambeth  Palace  Library,  London,  England,  etc.: 

"LAMBETH  LIBRARY,  12  June,  1888. 

«i  *  *  *  *  in  this  library  there  is  a  fine  collection  of  works 
on  the  liturgies,  prayer-book,  etc.  In  your  '  New  Rendering  of  the 


Hebrew  Psalms  Into  English  Verse,'  I  am  greatly  interested  in  the 
introduction,  in  reading  about  the  psalms  of  Clement  Marot,  and  in 
the  allusion  to  the  Huguenots.  My  little  book  on  the  '  Protestants 
from  France  in  their  English  home '  was  kindly  reviewed  in  one 
of  your  papers.  *  *  *  *  " 


J.  K.  Hoyt,  editor  and  author: 

"  BAY  VIEW,  Florida. 

"DEAR  DR.  COLES — I  have  passed  a  very  pleasant  Sunday  morn- 
ing in  looking  over  your  new  book.  I  wish  you  had  invoked  the  spirit 
of  Beethoven,  and  written  the  music  as  well  as  the  words;  for  the 
proper  use  of  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  is  to  sing  them. 
Still,  the  book  is  a  wonderful  one,  and  encourages  me  to  believe  that 
age  is  not  necessarily  a  bar  to  work.  I  enjoy  the  notes  much, 
and  very  often  find  myself  turning  from  the  essay  to  the  verses 
referred  to.  You  will  leave  a  melodious  monument  behind  you,  my 
good  Doctor." 


The  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.  D.: 

"  MY  DEAR  DR.  COLES — I  greatly  admire  your  new  book  for  many 
reasons  :  first,  for  its  rich  introduction,  felicitously  describing  the 
character  of  the  Psalms,  giving  us  an  exhaustive  history  of  metrical 
versions,  presenting  critical,  historical  and  biographical  notes  of  great 
value  ;  secondly,  for  your  new  rendering  of  the  Psalms,  a  rendering 
conscientious,  mellifluous,  fresh  and  suggestive;  thirdly,  and  not  least, 
for  the  frontispiece,  representing  one  who  has  both  the  David  spirit 
and  the  David  music.  Faithfully  yours." 


The  Rev.  Lewis  R.  Dunn,  D.  D.: 

"  I  like  the  'rhythmic  flow'  of  the  words  of  your  work,  its  truths, 
its  thorough  orthodoxy,  its  blending  of  the  results  of  most  recent 
scholarship  in  lines  and  notes,  its  beautiful  illustrations  of  the  text, 
and  its  high  intellectual  and  spiritual  tone — a  classic  in  our  good 
old  English  tongue." 


Asahel  Clark  Kendrick,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  author,  Pro- 
fessor of  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  University  of 
Rochester,  New  York  : 

"  In  your  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms  into  English  verse, 
you  may  well  be  congratulated  in  having  thus  nobly  crowned 
your  series  of  poems  devoted  to  those  themes,  which  aid  the  aspir- 
ations of  the  soul  upward  toward  God  and  heaven,  and  may  well 
task  the  highest  human  efforts.  The  renderings  are  in  clear 
and  weighty  verse,  fitted  to  the  noble  simplicity  of  the  original ;  and 
the  notes  are  instructive  and  valuable." 


George  MacDonald,  author  and  poet : 

"LONDON,  England. 

"  MY  DEAR  DOCTOR  COLES. — I  send  you  by  this  post  a  copy  of 
my  little  book  on  the  religious  poetry  of  England.  I  am  sure  you 
will  find  a  good  deal  to  sympathize  with  in  it.  *  *  *  I  am  sorry 
to  say  I  have  not  yet  received  your  book,  which  I  should  like  muck 
to  see  after  the  taste  you  gave  me,  sheltered  and  ministered  unto 
by  you  and  yours.  Let  me  hope  I  may  once  more  be  your  guest, 
and  that  you  may  be  ours.  Believe  in  my  love  and  gratitude. 
Yours,  with  sincere  affection." 


The  Rev.  Philip  S chaff,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  in  "  Literature 
and  Poetry,"  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1890 : 

"A  physician,  Abraham  Coles,  prepared  between  1847  and  1859 
thirteen  versions  (of  the  '  Dies  Irae'),  six  of  which  are  in  the  trochaic 
measure  and  double  rhyme  of  the  original,  five  in  the  same  rhythm, 
but  in  single  rhyme,  one  in  iambic  triplets,  like  Roscommon's,  the 
last  in  quatrains,  like  Crashaw's  version.  Two  appeared  anony. 
mously  in  the  Newark  '  Daily  Advertiser,'  the  first  one  in  1847, 
and  a  part  of  it  found  its  way  into  Mrs.  Stowe's  '  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  ; '  subsequently  this  version  was  set  to  music  in  Henry 
Ward  Beecher's  '  Plymouth  Collection  of  Hymns  and  Tunes.' 
The  thirteen  versions  were  first  published  together  with  an  in- 
troduction in  1859.  He  has  since  published  three  additional  ver- 
sions in  double  rhyme,  New  York,  1881,  in  '  The  Microcosm  and 
Other  Poems.'  In  August,  1889,  he  made  one  more  version  in 
single  rhyme  and  four  lines.  These  seventeen  versions  show  a 
rare  fertility  and  versatility,  and  illustrate  the  possibilities  of 
variation,  without  altering  the  sense.  Dr.  Coles,  in  the  eleventh 
stanza  of  his  first  translation  of  1847,  had  anticipated  Irons, 
Peries,  and  Dix: 

"  '  Righteous  Judge  of  retribution, 
Make  me  gift  of  absolution 
Ere  that  day  of  execution.' 

*  *  *  "Dr.  Abraham  Coles,  of  Scotch  Plains,  N.  J.,  the  suc- 
cessful translator  of  '  Dies  Irae,' and  '  Stabat  Mater, 'has  reproduced, 
but  has  not  yet  (1889),  published,  all  the  passion  hymns  of  St. 
Bernard." 


From  the  New  York  "Tribune": 

"Dr.  Abraham  Coles,  who  died  suddenly  at  the  Hotel  del 
Monte,  near  Monterey,  California,  May  3,  1891,  from  heart  com- 
plication following  an  attack  of  La  Grippe,  was  widely  known  as 
a  scholar,  author  and  linguist.  He  was  born  at  Scotch  Plains, 
N.  J.,  December  26,  1813,  and  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  there 
on  his  beautiful  place  (Deerhurst),  which  was  much  resorted  to 
by  literary  and  professional  people.  For  more  than  fifty  years  he 
pursued  his  literary  studies  and  work,  and  became  proficient  in 
Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  Sanskrit  and  the  modern  languages." 

From  the  "Newark  Daily  Advertiser": 

"  As  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Newark  Library,  and  the  New 
Jersey  Historical  Society,  and  on  account  of  his  active  efforts  in  the 
promotion  of  the  religious,  educational  and  scientific  development 
of  the  city  of  Newark,  the  memory  of  Dr.  Abraham  Coles  will  be 
cherished  with  lasting  affection  and  respect. 

The  Rev.  Robert  S.  MacArthur,  D.  D.: 

"Few  men  have  recently  died  whose  position  and  work  were 
so  unique  as  those  of  Dr.  Abraham  Coles.  Seldom  are  so  many 
elements  of  power  united  in  a  single  man.  He  was  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  medical  profession.  His  poetical  genius  was  as  rare 
as  it  was  genuine.  There  is  no  kind  of  literary  fame  so  enduring  as 
the  authorship  of  a  noble  hymn.  As  the  author  of  the  hymn  begin- 
ning, 'From  Thee  Begetting  Sure  Conviction,"  his  name  will  live, 
even  as  he  has  described  the  presence  of  the  Master  as  continuing 
with  His  people,  'All  the  Days.  All  the  Days.'  We  sang  that  hymn 
in  the  Calvary  Church  when  we  first  entered  our  new  church  home. 
We  sing  it  on  many  of  our  anniversary  occasions.  Other  hymns 
which  he  has  written  are  doubtless  equally  as  good,  but  this  one  has 
for  me  a  peculiar  charm. 


"Many  of  his  translations  of  the  Psalms  are  worthy  to  perpetuate 
his  name  to  remote  generations.  I  love  to  read  them  aloud  that  I 
may  get  the  full  force  of  their  rhythm,  as  well  as  the  sweet  influ- 
ence of  their  divine  thought.  His  knowledge  of  general  literature 
and  especially  of  Latin  hymnology  gives  him  a  special  place  in  the 
thought  and  affection  of  students  of  the  early  days  of  the  Christian 
Church." 

The  Rev.  Edward  Judson,  D.  D.: 

"  I  loved  and  admired  Dr.  Abraham  Coles  very  much.  I  have 
read  with  deepest  interest  whatever  I  have  been  able  to  secure  from 
his  graceful  pen.  His  rendering  of  the  Psalms  I  prize  most  highly." 

Bishop  John  H.  Vincent,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Chancellor 
of  the  Chautauqua  University: 

"  Dr.  Abraham  Coles  was  a  magnificent  man,  physically,  intel- 
lectually and  spiritually;  he  was  one  among  ten  thousand.  Who 
can  doubt  the  great  doctrine  of  immortality  in  the  presence  of  such 
a  life." 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Phillips  Brooks,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts: 

"All  that  concerns  Dr.  Abraham  Coles  is  of  great  interest  to  me, 
for  I  have  long  known  his  work  and  valued  it." 

The  Rt.  Rev.  John  Williams,  D.  D.,  LL.  .D,  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  Chancellor  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege, etc.: 

"  I  honored  and  reverenced  Dr.  Abraham  Coles.  I  always  read 
his  delightful  writings  with  pleasure  and  profit.  There  was  an 
aroma  of  purity  and  godly  grace  about  them  that  was  particularly 
attractive.  The  world  is  richer  for  such  a  life  as  his,  and  poorer 
for  his  loss." 


